INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Welcome back to Startups Weekly, a weekend newsletter that dives into the week noteworthy startups and venture capital news
Before I jump into today topic, let catch up a bit
Last week, I wrote about the defining moments of VC in 2019
Before that, I noted some thoughts on U.S
VC activity in Europe.
Remember, you can send me tips, suggestions and feedback to kate.clark@techcrunch.com or on Twitter@KateClarkTweets
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2019 lost startups
Startups perish for many reasons but there one constant: this
is an incredibly difficult business
Launching a successful company isn&t just a matter of drive and finding the right people (though both, clearly, are important)
Doing well in this business requires the stars to align perfectly on a billion different things.
A cursory look at this year batch of
companies doesn&t find any story quite as spectacular as last year big Theranos flameout, which gave us a best-selling book, documentary,
podcast series and upcoming Adam McKay/Jennifer Lawrence film
Some, like MoviePass, however, may have come close.
And for every Theranos, there are dozens of stories of hardworking founders with
promising products that simply couldn&t make it to the finish line
There also room for debate about what is and isn&t a startup
For our purposes, we&re focusing here on independent startups, not digital initiatives from larger companies — though in at least one
case, the startup was acquired by a larger company before shutting down.
So without further ado, here are some of the biggest and most
fascinating startups that closed up shop in 2019.
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