👊 When founders fight
Ten months before drone startup Swoop Aero entered into voluntary administration, its co-founder resigned from the board. It was a key moment for the company.
Two years after raising its Series B, Melbourne-based drone delivery startup Swoop Aero is in liquidation. This morning Capital Brief published a story about what went wrong behind the scenes, with insiders pointing to product delays, strategic failures and fractured leadership.
As co-founder Eric Peck told me, the startup wasn't shooting for an easy target, like writing software to sell Facebook ads — it was designing and manufacturing "flying robots". Peck doesn't fancy himself an Elon Musk acolyte but conceded that only challenges like self-driving cars and rockets are more formidable.
Compounding the inherent challenges of its mission, Swoop Aero was trying to accomplish its goals within Australia's tough regulatory environment and with a fraction of the capital its European and American competitors were working with.
But the reason why most startups bite the dust is not because they're trying to do difficult things, according to The Co-Founder's Dilemma author Noam Wasserman. The biggest killer of startups — afflicting 65% of those that don't make it — is conflict between founders.
