Success, failure, and a little tech magic to make your life easier.

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Hey Founders,

If startups were a game, the rules would be written in disappearing ink. Some rise like SpaceX, some fall like MySpace, and somewhere in between, we find the hidden playbook for success. Today, we’re breaking down one startup that cracked the code, one that imploded like a bad Tinder date, and one tool that’ll save you from both fates.

Let’s dive in.

Don't worry, it's shallow waters.. just 3-5 minute read if you are wondering. No long drawn out breaths here. Go ahead, start the timer, start reading. Where else are you going to get all this startup knowledge in such a short time?

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🏆 WINNING: How Figma Designed Its Way to a $20B Exit

Figma didn’t just redesign design—it redesigned how designers design. (Say that five times fast.) In an industry where clunky, solo-player software like Adobe Photoshop ruled, Figma stepped in with a web-based, real-time collaboration platform that turned design into a team sport.

With $748.6M raised and a mission to make design more accessible, Figma did the impossible: it challenged Adobe… and won. It did this by:

• Real-time collaboration – Multiple users could work on the same design file at once. (Finally, no more “Final_v6_ReallyFinal.psd” confusion.)
• Browser-based magic – No downloads, no expensive licenses, just a login and a dream.
• Community-driven growth – Figma leaned into education, tutorials, and a killer free-tier strategy to turn its users into evangelists.

The result? A $20B acquisition by Adobe in 2022. But here’s the kicker—regulators weren’t thrilled. The deal got blocked, leaving Figma in an awkward “What now?” phase. But even without the buyout, Figma remains one of the biggest SaaS success stories ever.

💀 LOSING: Quibi—$1.75B to Zero in 6 Months

Quibi, aka “That Streaming Service You Forgot Existed,” launched in 2020 with $1.75B in funding, Hollywood backing, and a plan to revolutionize mobile entertainment. Instead, it flopped harder than a fish out of water.

Why?

• Wrong product, wrong time – Quibi bet everything on “quick bites” (10-minute shows) for on-the-go commuters… right before a pandemic shut down commuting.
• No sharing, no virality – It banned screenshots and didn’t allow easy sharing, killing the organic word-of-mouth growth that fuels platforms like TikTok.
• $7.99/month for what? – When Netflix, YouTube, and TikTok were free (or already in your budget), no one was dying to pay for… well, whatever Quibi was.

Six months later, Quibi shut down, refunding advertisers, laying off employees, and proving that even a billionaire-backed startup can crash if it ignores its audience.

⚡ TECH OPTIMIZATION: Automate Like a Boss with Zapier

Let’s be real: founders don’t have time to manually do… anything. Enter Zapier, the automation MVP that connects over 5,000 apps and eliminates busywork.

🔥 Why it’s a game-changer:​
✅ Set it and forget it – Automate lead collection, email follow-ups, CRM updates, and even Slack notifications without touching a single line of code.
✅ Works with everything – From Notion to Gmail to Shopify, Zapier is the universal glue that makes your entire tech stack play nice together.
✅ Saves 20+ hours a week – Less time on admin, more time on growing your startup.

Try Zapier today. It’s like hiring an army of assistants—without the payroll.

The Takeaway

💡 Figma proved that disrupting an old industry is possible if you get the product and community right.
💀 Quibi proved that all the money in the world won’t save a bad idea.
⚡ Zapier proves you can automate 80% of your busywork and focus on actually growing your business.

The choice? Yours.

Want to make sure you’re on the winning side of the startup game?​
👉 Book a free strategy session and let’s turn your vision into reality.

Until next time, stay scrappy, stay smart, and for the love of all things scalable—stop manually entering data into spreadsheets.

Cheers,

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Patrick

Chief Startup Whisperer, Empowered Entrepreneur 🚀

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If you got this far, and you got this from a friend or a friendly social media post, see the other posts about failed startups, successful startups and optimizations to enable your super powers to be the next super successful startup empoweredentrepreneur.kit.com

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Heck do someone else a favour and share this on your social media. Help me help more startup founders. There is a ton of free startup resources at empoweredentrepreneur.ca including a free strategy session with me. Did I mention; it is all FREE!

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