How and Why to Shut Down Your Startup

I hope, for your sake, that you never have to do this.

But after having been through the process of shutting down a promising startup in 2018, I realized that there was precious little guidance out there about how to approach getting it done. So I thought I’d share my experiences. If you ever find yourself in this situation, don’t hesitate to reach out, I’m happy to help.

Should You Shut Down Your Startup?

Here’s a simple set of questions you can ask yourself to determine if a shutdown is right for your startup:

1. Do we have less than 4–6 months worth of capital in the bank?
2. Have we exhausted all our friendly funding options? Meaning: would it take a miracle to raise another round right now before our money runs out?
3. Given that an acquisition takes 4–6 months or longer, are we already past this window?
4. Are you hating this company, your job, your life, your co-founder, investors and team? Do you feel anxious, depressed or avoidant?

If you answered yes to 3 or more of these questions, you are a candidate to shut it down.

And before I get a raft of email explaining that last minute hail marys happen, let me say that I believe in miracles — but it probably…