Founder of KISSMetrics reflects on how the analytics startup failed because of distraction from random ideas, drive-by management, lack of prioritization, more
Back in 2008, I co-founded KISSmetrics, an analytics company. — There were so many times when I thought about giving up during the early days. Tweets: @rrhoover , @amix3k , @shearic , @joshelman , @lissijean , @natalykogan , @tuckermattr , and @arjunsethi Tweets: Ryan Hoover / @rrhoover : I appreciate @hnshah's transparency on why KISSmetrics ultimately failed: http://producthabits.com/...I can relate to the “Hiten Bomb” - I've dropped them and received them @amix3k : “Great leaders are consistent, they help provide a direction and get the team focused on doing what's best for the business, at all times.” — An insightful post by @hnshah on his missteps with KISSmetrics http://producthabits.com/... Richard Shea / @shearic : So much more to this great read, but a very $$ quote: “the key to driving growth on product is to create product processes that produce repeatable wins” http://twitter.com/... Josh Elman / @joshelman : My Billion Dollar Mistake by @hnshah — such an honest reflective post on why drive by management and lack of prioritization can stunt a company's growth. Am reflecting on this myself http://producthabits.com/... Melissa Perri / @lissijean : An excellent, honest story by @hitenshah on how his distraction as a leader caused the downfall of Kissmetrics. Leaders - take note! #startups #prodmgmt My Billion Dollar Mistake http://producthabits.com/... Nataly Kogan / @natalykogan : As a founder and as a human, this was one of the most inspiring, helpful, and valuable things I've ever read. What an an amazingly vulnerable example of true leadership. So grateful and proud of you @hnshah http://twitter.com/... Matt R. Tucker / @tuckermattr : “The winning product process is based on continuous innovation, continuous unbiased research, and goal-focused development. Building product the right way takes work up front, but if you put in the work, you'll be rewarded.” http://producthabits.com/... Arjun Sethi / @arjunsethi : I applaud @hnshah for writing about Kissmetrics. Building products and running a company are two different things and there are a lot of lessons to be learned along the way. Great post mortem http://producthabits.com/... PS @lolapps was one of the social apps that wouldn't pay 💸
Context & Ripple Effects
Hiten Shah's KISSmetrics postmortem lands in a small but growing genre of founders naming their own companies' causes of death rather than blaming markets. The Pebble/T2 CEO would later run the same play, citing failure to prioritize building an app among the reasons his social network died — prioritization showing up as a recurring culprit across both postmortems.
The piece also cuts against the growth-at-all-costs canon: where Blitzscaling treats VC-fueled speed as the winning posture, Shah's account describes the internal cost of that mode — random ideas, drive-by management, no single priority. Contrast Mattermark, which shut down quietly in an acquisition where common stockholders got nothing, with no comparable founder autopsy.
First-order effects
- Founders and operators reading the postmortem get a concrete vocabulary for internal failure modes — the 'Hiten Bomb' of sudden idea-driven pivots — and peers like Ryan Hoover publicly relate, amplifying the lesson beyond Product Habits' audience.
Second-order effects
- Investors and advisors gain counter-evidence to hypergrowth doctrine: a well-funded analytics company failing from lack of focus strengthens the case for prioritization discipline over blitzscaling-style expansion when evaluating teams.
Third-order effects
- If candid self-critical postmortems keep accumulating — Pebble, Indie.vc, now KISSmetrics — failure disclosure becomes normalized practice in startup culture, shifting accountability from external narratives (market timing, competition) onto management behavior itself.
The trend: Founder-led postmortems are becoming a standard genre in which lack of focus and inconsistent leadership, rather than market forces, are named as the primary killers of venture-backed startups.