Girişimci Kafası archive
Startup Graveyard
Stories of startups that shut down in Turkey and around the world: what they did, why they closed and the lessons they left behind. Every failure holds a lesson for the next founder.
1,686startup stories in the archive
What you will find in the graveyard
What they did
The product, the market and the founding and closing years of each startup, from Turkish marketplaces to global streaming services.
Why they closed
The main cause behind each shutdown: no market need, running out of cash, the business model, regulation, or being acquired and closed.
The lessons
What founders can take away from each story, so the next startup does not repeat the same mistakes.
The archive is compiled from public sources such as Wikidata, news archives and company announcements. Figures are given as they appear in those sources and unknown fields are left blank. The graveyard and its stories are in Turkish.
A few stories to start with
Turkey · 2001–2022
GittiGidiyor
Started as an auction site and became one of Turkey's oldest marketplaces, then was acquired and closed.
Read the story (in Turkish) →
Turkey · 2008–2019
Markafoni
The discount fashion site that made invitation-only private shopping popular in Turkey; its business model did not hold.
Read the story (in Turkish) →
Turkey · 2015–2019
Sinemia
A monthly cinema subscription app that let people go to the cinema often for a fixed fee, until regulation and legal trouble caught up.
Read the story (in Turkish) →
United States · 2018–2020
Quibi
A streaming service for short shows made for phones that raised 1.75 billion dollars and found no market.
Read the story (in Turkish) →
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