How Three Entrepreneurs Bounced Back From Failure

We learn as much from our failures as we do from our successes. That has long been a truth in business as well as in life. Here are some prime examples of entrepreneurs who bounced back from failure.

Nihal Mehta

Nihal Mehta is the founder and CEO Local Response. This is a ad-tech firm working out of New York whose primary focus is on social media targeted ads. Anyone who has been in the tech industry is bound to have a failure or two on their portfolio. Mehta's first tech venture folded in 1999. However, he was able to hold onto the programming assets and merge them into a new company that was eventually sold to Omnicon Group. After that he started up Buzzd, which was a real-time mobile city guide. The initial funding was for $4 million. Unfortunately, Buzzd was ahead of its time and never really caught on with consumers.

Instead of going under, Mehta regrouped and recapitalized the entire financial structure of the company. This gave him a much needed cash boost to rebrand as Local Response, and had him poised for the Smartphone revolution that would come a few months later.

The big lesson was finding a way to stay active. "I learned this the hard way--it was six years from my first company to my first exit," Mehta told Entreprenuer.com "Building products isn't easy, but if you keep working hard, keep throwing things at the wall, you will find a way."

Kathryn Minshew

Kathryn Minshew is CEO and co-founder of the Manhattan-based, The Muse. This is a career-development platform that is chock full of resourceful original content, interactive job boards and insightful company profiles. In 2010, Minshew launched Pretty Young Professionals which was geared as a networking site for professional women. A year later the redesigned site attracted 20,000 young women and that's when the trouble started with her partners.

Everyone had a different idea of where the company should go next. Instead of working through, they decided to split up with an equity and intellectual property agreement being formed on a handshake and notepaper without lawyers. Mistake. Minshew took what she learned to start the Muse, which recently posted an impressive 2 million users over 160 countries. Her take away was to formalize partnerships at every step of the way with proper legal representatives. A shrewd business lawyer will see potential pitfalls.

"It's so important to find people who share your values and ethics," she told Entrepreneur.com. "There are a lot of things you can paper over, and having different sets of opinions is valuable, but not when it comes down to code of conduct."

Frank Jadhavji

Frank Jadhavji is the co-founder and current CEO of JustDeals.com, which is described as "a flash-deal site specializing in consumer electronics and appliances." Dealing in actual products had Jadhavji setting up a company warehouse. The first shipment to arrive was stolen. The big problem was that inventory was already sold to waiting online customers and the way out was hunkering down in crisis management. This meant expediting insurance claims and reaching out to the customers to make them away of the situation. 

This was a classic case of "anything that can go wrong, will!" Jadhavji suggests hiring a management team who can handle a crisis with swift action.

4 Tips for Startup Founders

The best business advice often comes from those entrepreneurs who have "been there and done that." Here are 4 tips for startup founders from startup founders:

Don't rush your product to market.

"It’s natural to be in a hurry to get product out the door, but take a breath first and really gauge where you are. Slow down when it comes to key decisions, said Dan Belcher, co-founder of Boston-based Stackdriver. Sometimes doing things too early is just as bad than doing them too late.

Do all the jobs first.

Think of this as the "Undercover Boss" paradigm. On that popular reality show, a CEO puts on a disguise and goes down to join the workers to get their perspective on things. Perhaps you should give this a try. "Founders should do every role first before hiring someone to take it over. This helps me understand who I’m hiring, what they should be good at, what they should be doing and how to measure their success,” said David Mytton, founder of Server Density which is a London-based provider of server monitoring services.

Be smart with your hiring.

This is solid advice because hiring before there is a demand for your product is a good way to run through all your working capital. That doesn't mean you shouldn't always be on the prowl for new talent. “You should always be interviewing and always be hiring regardless of your headcount plan,” says Stackdriver co-founder Izzy Azeri. “It’s so hard to find good people and the founder is always the best recruiter.”

Brace yourself for failure.

This doesn't mean you should expect that your company is going to go under but there will be times when things aren't going to work out like that should. That applies to whether you're selling shoes or developing mobile phone apps. Dan Foody is the co-founder of Cloze. They have created an app merges a user’s mail and social media messages. "Apple restricts developers to at most 100 beta test devices for any app. In today’s world that’s not nearly a large enough audience to refine an app (especially a consumer-focused one),” Foody said. “You need hundreds to thousands of beta testers. How can you avoid this pitfall? Build a web app first so you can learn the hard lessons up front with a wide audience without being restricted by platform and store limitations.”

Top Female Entrepreneurs Under 30

Successful entrepreneurs come from a wide variety of backgrounds and they certainly aren't limited to a "boy's club." Here are 10 rising female entrepreneurs you should keep an eye on:

Sarah Prevette, 28, founder of Sprouter.com

Hoping to connect like-minded entrepreneurs, Sarah created an online community where these professionals can share valuable business insights and socialize. Questions asked by new startup owners are answered by the entrepreneurs who have already gone through the challenges of starting a business from the ground up. It's a face-paced environment that has attracted tens of thousands of community members and several "angel investors."

Ashley Qualls, 20, founder of Whateverlife.com

Ashley started her successful online business at the ripe old age of 14 but she was really working on websites since she was nine. The site offers all kinds of tutorials for setting up webpage layouts and HTML programming. Recently, Ashley was offered $1.5 million to buy out her company. She turned it down. Today, her web traffic averages up to 360,000 daily visitors.

Catherine Cook, 22, founder of MyYearBook.com

If you want a perfect example of brothers and sisters getting along than look no further. Catherine and her brother David founded this teen social site that currently clocks in with 25 million members and revenue topping out at $24 million. Look out Facebook!

Justine Ezarik, 26, founder of iJustine

If the success of an online entrepreneur can be defined by the number of followers than Justine certainly hits the mark. Currently she has over 1.2 million Twitter followers and over 400,000 Facebook fans. That is on top of the 1 million subscribers to her YouTube channel. What is Justine offering? Viral comedy videos. Can that be a business? When you consider that Justine has pulled in around $75,000 from YouTube alone than yes, it's a business.

Lauren Bush, 26, founder of FEED

Not every successful entrepreneur has to stay "online" they can actually get out and help folks in need. Lauren set up FEED as a non-profit organization dedicated to feeding the hungry. Since its inception, FEED has provided over 50 million meals at spots all around the globe. She has accomplished this goal by selling reusable grocery bags with half the profits from the sales going to the meal programs. It's a win/win all around.

Alexa von Tobel, 26, founder of LearnVest

The mission of LearnVest is to help young women foster proactive habits that can provide them with financial security for years to come. The goal is to start early in life and grow towards independence. The site started out with $1.1 million in funding and today has secured over $5.5 million in development funds and has signed up over 100,000 members.

Kyle Smitley, 25, founder of Barley and Birch

Organics are a big business and not just with food. Kyle Smitley understands the need for these types of products and created an organic clothing line for kids. These eco-friendly outfits have become a huge hit with the "green mom" crowd. So far she has managed to place her clothing line in over 25 stores.

Maddie Bradshaw, 15, founder of M3 Girl Designs

What would you do with a million dollars if you were only fifteen years old? You should ask Maddie because that's how much her school locker decoration and jewelry company has brought in so far. Her target are all the young girls her age and who would know better than one of their own.

Rachel Hollis, 27, founder of Chic Events

Chic Events was born in Rachel Hollis' basement in 2004 thanks to her passion for throwing great parties. She's turned that talent into an event planning business that has generated close to a million dollars in revenue. Whether it's a movie premiere, wedding or sweet sixteen, Rachel can make it a Chic Event.

Alexa Hirschfeld, 26, founder of Paperless Post

This is another sibling-founded business started by Alex and her brother that creates cyber wedding invitations. That simple idea has allowed the duo to bring in $6.3 million in funding and rocketed them to profitability within a year of opening their business.