He raised $16M, hit $1M ARR—& failed. Here are the top 3 lessons he learned. | David Anderson, Founder of Tandym

David's startup failed. But he had everything going for him: a solid thesis, $16M in funding across 3 rounds, $1.5M in ARR. At a high-level it seemed like everything was going the right way. And yet, it didn't work out.

This is what happens to 95% of startups. On thhis show, we mainly speak with the top 5%-- the ones where things went right and everything worked out. But you tend to learn more from failures than successes.

On this episode, we go deep with David to see what building Tandym was like, why it ultimately didn't work, and what he would do differently the second time around.

Why you should listen:

• Why you should always start with the model that requires the least capital 
• Why you need to be a number one priority for your customers
• Why even hitting $1M ARR doesn't mean you will succeed.
• Why you need to pivot quickly as soon as things are clearly not working.  i

Keywords
product-market fit, startup journey, fundraising, fintech, brand partnerships, business model, sales challenges, urgency in sales, Tandem, lessons learned, startup, fundraising, product strategy, compliance, revenue growth, entrepreneurship, lessons learned, business pivot, mid-market brands, capital management

Timestamps
(00:00:00) Intro
(00:03:30) The Origin of Tandym
(00:09:26) Taking the Leap
(00:11:37) The Business Model
(00:17:22) Developing the Product
(00:21:05) Struggling to Create Urgency
(00:26:50) Raising Rounds & Shifting
(00:35:11) First Signs of Problems
(00:39:01) The Product that we should've launched
(00:42:12) How it All Ended
(00:49:56) Final Thoughts & Advice

Send me a message to let me know what you think!