The most valuable lesson to tech startups

Nevercode
Nevercode
Sep 7, 2018 · 4 min read

On 7th of September, something extraordinary will happen in Tallinn, Estonia. Over 300 people will be watching a movie that will change their understanding of life.

Nevercode, CEO Triin Kask sheds some light how this documentary of the year touched her heart and why she felt it’s needed to share the idea with Estonian tech world.


It’s not going to be yet another Hollywood drama where a miracle happens and the world is saved just before everything is doomed by some evil. This is a movie about a group of people whose world did end and there was no miracle to save them. And it is going to be even more dramatic to watch because there is no evil but pure passion, talent and a dream.

The dream was General Magic, a startup that was founded by a handful of super talented Apple employees who went to build the ancestor of iPhone and many other products to support instant communication between technology and people. However, 12 years later the company found itself in bankruptcy and barely anyone remembered it, until now.

General Magic Assembled

The story of General Magic is truly fascinating as virtually the entire smartphone market has been defined by the company’s former employees, including Tony Fadell (co-inventor of the iPod and iPhone), Andy Rubin (inventor of Android), Kevin Lynch (head of the Apple Watch team) and John Giannandrea (head of AI/Search at Apple). The company’s engineering team is viewed as one of the most talented in Silicon Valley’s history. At the same time, the story tells us that you can have all the passion, talent and money, but it might still not be enough to succeed.

The time also needs to be right for passion and talent to meet the opportunity.


When I first heard about the company General Magic and that there is a movie about it, I wanted everyone in my team to see it. Nevercode is a startup company and we face a lot of challenges every day, which can sometimes be really harsh. People tend to lose motivation when everything does not go exactly the way they want, and so many quit before they have even tried. This is why courage, taking risks and not being afraid of the unknown are the cornerstones of our team’s culture.

We believe that life has to be adventurous and fun, and the only way to achieve it is to know that there is always a way even when it’s dark.

Failure isn’t the end, failure is actually the beginning!

9 out of 10 startups fail. I hope I’m wrong here and the ratio is more like 4/10. It should be, considering that there are so many accelerators, blogs and online courses to teach starting entrepreneurs how to do things the right way and not fail. But life constantly shows us that we don’t learn from others’ mistakes because every person, every story is unique.

Therefore, you will only learn through your own failures, and what you hear from others will be the reflection point of your own insights. This is exactly what happened when I built my first startup.

And now at Nevercode, I welcome every failure, urge everybody to do mistakes and not to be afraid to take risks. Because this is the only way to move the world towards a place where everybody can be creators and wouldn’t need to write code in order to realize their ideas. Never code is our vision.

The next big thing comes from the past, like gravitational waves travel through space. We just need to be patient enough to witness it.


  • ** What has been your most life valuable lesson? Please share your thoughts in comments. ***

This story is published in The Startup, Medium’s largest entrepreneurship publication followed by +366,567 people.

Subscribe to receive our top stories here.

The Startup

Medium's largest active publication, followed by +527K people. Follow to join our community.

Nevercode

Written by

Nevercode

Trusted CI/CD partner for your Android, iOS, Ionic, Cordova, React Native & Flutter projects. https://nevercode.io

The Startup

Medium's largest active publication, followed by +527K people. Follow to join our community.

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade