These five startups couldn't handle the heat this year, so they went out of business. Image: TheUSBPort.

Juicero recently announced its shutdown after being only 16 months in business and raising over $100 million in funding. The company said they needed to work on a solid business model before attempting to satisfy the demand that exists for its juice press and produce.

Their quick rise and fall from grace is one of the many that happen in the tech world every year, an inevitable consequence of what is an inherently volatile and competitive market. Only the startups with the resources, strategy, and compelling products or services eventually make it.

For some, the road to the top is slow and steady, whereas for others it is fast-paced and non-stop. Some of them have become tech giants in their own right, like Facebook and Amazon. Here, though, we list the ones that didn’t quite make it this year.

Beepi

Beepi was a digital marketplace where people could buy and sell used cars, a common transaction that is usually somewhat of a hassle to do through traditional methods, i.e. a dealership. Business was booming at some point, but eventually, it all went bust due to poor management.

Company executives reportedly aimed high and spent big. This left them bound to a buyout option from up to three potential lifesavers, but all of these deals fell through after they found out the startup had no money left. Beepi assets were sold to different unknown parties in February, and its founders claim they are “down, but not out.”

Jawbone

Jawbone was truly a pioneer in the field of wearables and connected devices. The company even made some of the first fitness trackers in the market, which were quite popular until the arrival of prominent rivals like Fitbit. Out of the blue, though, the firm spun off into a health-oriented startup.

Reports and rumors about Jawbone’s incursion into the clinical services field were coming since last year, but nobody saw coming the sudden drop of all customer service and assets liquidation. Some of their products still live, though, much to the frustration of their many customers.

Juicero

Juicero, one of the darlings of the tech industry for a short period, transitioned from a brief period of grace due to its woes and promises to a rough couple of months during which it faced widespread ridicule for the absurdity of its product offerings.

The tale of Juicero turned into the chronicle of a death foretold once it was revealed that its Wi-Fi enabled Juice Press was basically a pointlessly connected device and that its Produce Packs were squeezable by hand.

Lily

Once a promising breakthrough for the consumer drone industry, the Lily drone checked all the right boxes: portable, lightweight, waterproof, simple controls, and a decent battery life. Of course, that was until it got delayed by roughly two years and eventually succumbed due to a lack of funding.

The much-hyped drone could have been the first of its kind out of the gate, and for $499 no less. Instead, the company failed to secure additional funding to start production and it even ended up owing more than $30 million to suppliers and investors. They claim to have a new camera flying camera on the works though, so that’s something.

Yik Yak

Many at the time sentenced Yik Yak to fail as a startup based just on common sense. The premise of the startup was to provide a public hub limited by location, in which anonymous users could talk freely and leave comments about the community they were based on.

Of course, being born out of a university and marketed heavily in colleges across the country, Yik Yak quickly backfired. People started using it as a forum to engage in cyber bullying and harassment, which in turn raised issues about privacy and anonymity of its users. The app was shut down earlier this year.

Source: BBC

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