When your startup fails

News Summary

  • As the economy turned last year, and venture capital dried up, Cartwright was forced to shut down her company, taking the painful lessons she learned and moving on to whatever comes next.When she started out, though, Cartwright believed that the beverage industry was ripe for digital transformation.
  • Without really knowing it at the time, she was laying the groundwork for her startup idea.The business launched in February 2020 just as the pandemic was taking hold, perhaps an omen of things to come.
  • Maybe the founder sees a pain point and thinks they can solve it with a bit of technology and shift an industry, but it doesn’t always go quite as planned.
  • While she was in graduate school at Harvard a few years ago, she came up with the idea of starting a hard seltzer business.
  • Eventually she partnered with John Cline, an experienced engineering manager, who had had stints at eBay, Blue Apron and Google before joining Cartwright to help build ShelfLife.With Cline in the fold, they began building the platform.
  • A startup begins as an idea, an inkling.
A startup begins as an idea, an inkling. Maybe the founder sees a pain point and thinks they can solve it with a bit of technology and shift an industry, but it doesnt always go quite as planned. Tha [+2543 chars]