FAIL BLOG: Nooo, not that charmingly distracting one but instead the lively back-and-forth over the death of edtech startup, Knack for Teachers. Founder Jarrod Drysdale posted this dirge to his late startup, saying that even though he felt for teachers, "...they're still terrible customers." Blogger Audrey Watters in e-Literate struck back. Among her points: the more startups you have, the failures you'll see. (Sad but true.) Most true is what we'd like to call the (Steve) Blankety-Blank rule: "Startups don't fail because they lack a product; they fail because they lack customers and a proven financial model." More on understanding customers at our meetup in SF on Oct. 13! Details in "Out of the Box" below.
