By no means assume you’ve outgrown actuality checks
In 2009, Sunil Nagaraj launched Wings, a courting app that promised to rewrite the principles of digital romance. By analyzing information from Fb, Twitter, and even Netflix, it may establish suitable matches with unprecedented accuracy.
Wings went viral. Nagaraj and his workforce had been on the verge of one thing revolutionary. Or so it appeared.
However as matches rolled in, customers nonetheless most popular bodily attractiveness over widespread pursuits. Blinded by their preliminary success, Nagaraj resisted conforming to the courting panorama’s established norms. Satisfied they may reshape consumer habits, the workforce leaned more durable into data-heavy matchmaking, even refusing to indicate images till compatibility had been rigorously verified. However because it turned out, the very components that made different courting apps frustratingly fundamental had been precisely what made them widespread.
Three years after launching, Wings filed for chapter. As soon as assured that he may “repair” the courting trade, Nagaraj had as a substitute discovered a expensive lesson: Some conventions exist for a cause.
Over the previous thirty years that Tom Eisenmann has taught starry-eyed founders at Harvard Enterprise…
