Startup Funerals

As a community of innovators, entrepreneurs are up-beat and pumped about changing the world. There’s always a new trend or initiative that people are excited about, which creates new opportunities for startups. One necessary component for a healthy startup community is embracing failure and recognizing that it’s a natural part of how things work. NYC has a startup funeral initiative. Other places need one as well.

What’s the current ratio of startup launches to public startup funerals and acknowledged shut downs? 1,000 to 1? 10,000 to 1? It isn’t that the startups aren’t being shut down. They are. It’s that some are put on auto-pilot to die a slow death and others are quietly turned off.

Here are a few benefits of startup funerals:

• Provides closure to everyone involved — human nature desires it
• Makes it more public when talented people are available to promote recycling talent
• Helps make failure more acceptable

We need more startup funerals.

What else? What are your thoughts on startup funerals?