My first startup was a huge learning experience. I did not have any development experience so I hired a developer to build a vacation rental platform. I focused a lot on a proper back end while designing and structuring the front end. I had no job and was paying a developer out of my savings. Meanwhile, I approached listers on craigslist and begged them to list on my website (or let me list them for them, and some agreed).

Long story short, I ran out of money for development, because development is never "finished". You always have bugs to fix, things to tweak and it adds up. I had only maybe 300 listings on the website, zero SEO traction (which is what I was counting on the most) and an overbuilt platform with nothing to show for it. I could have done all of it on WordPress, but no... I was stubborn and thought I'd have a custom back end.

In the end I threw away 100k, became depressed for several years after that and disregarded bitcoin (this was around 2011).

My competitor who started just before me, didn't waste any time and onboarded thousands of properties. They did well organically and eventually sold to Homeaway, and later to Expedia.

That was that.