We have shut down ShotPitch
This is not your usual shutting down lessons learnt bullshit!
After having the best possible time Founders can ask for 7 months from November 2015- May 2016, I am extremely saddened to inform our well wishers that ShotPitch has been shutdown officially.
Oh did you fail to raise money? Was there no product market fit? Did the growth stagnate? Was it a Co-Founder tussle?
No! None of it. We were going like a true rocket-ship ever since announcing our launch in November 2015.
From trending on Product Hunt to having startups and investors from 90+ different countries to being couple of weeks away from money in the bank for our angel round(everything was done!), it was a dream come true kind of affair.
We also had the best possible set of investors we could have asked for the angel round :)
Why Shutdown?
Trust me when we say this but it was for a reason that was beyond our control and shutting down seemed the best way to get out of it. Niether do we want to get into the details of what transpired, neither does it matter for our close circles.
It was possibly the only way to get out of the mess beyond our control.
When I had welcomed my Co-Founder Nagesh, I had written “Brace up yourself and get ready to fly without seat belts, we are going to see a lot of turbulence. The chances of landing safely is not guaranteed but the flight to nowhere will be the most adventurous one you have ever taken”
Well the turbulence ended up being too much and the flight crashed.
No lessons learned?
Well hundreds of them. The reason I don’t want to get into it is every journey is different and when it comes to entrepreneurship you have to experience it and cannot afford to keep reading other’s experiences. No good is going to happen by knowing what lessons we learnt, rather go out and do!
What next?
Well the immediate next step is to tackle the most peculiar Indian question “Phir fail ho gaya Prashant” ab toh give it up. Nothing is going to happen here.
After 4.5 years of having been involved with startups though this question does not go to my heart, it does cause a tinge every now and then. If it doesn’t then you are just lying to yourself :)
When it comes to what next “seriously”, the only thing I can say right now is I will be back with something new sooner than later and it will be bigger and better this time around. If you can stand by me, please do.
Lastly
I want to take this opportunity to thank people who made the journey of ShotPitch possible.
Everyone at WowLabz, the product would not have seen light of the day if it was not for the world class work by people at WowLabz. Their support was beyond what you can put down in words.
Nagesh for being such a rockstar tech co-founder. We had a great time doing this together and there are memories for life. Aah the best one has to be how we ran from one meeting to another in Silicon Valley for 15 days.
Thank you for believing in the product and being there through thick and thin. For quitting your high paying job to build ShotPitch and for becoming more like a family than a Co-Founder :)
To our users first in the Alpha and then all the way till May 2016. It was because you were there, we existed. Thank you for giving us an opportunity to serve you and thank you for making us better with all the feedbacks you had left.
We are truly and totally heartbroken because our users loved us and this feels like betraying their trust, hope and well wishes. Please accept our sincere apologies.
To sign off below is our state of mind right now:
ShotPitch was very close to our heart and it is gone now. The thing which is not gone is the undying hunger and desire to build something larger than life and we will be back soon!
