By no means assume you’ve outgrown actuality checks
In 2009, Sunil Nagaraj launched Wings, a courting app that promised to rewrite the foundations of digital romance. By analyzing knowledge from Fb, Twitter, and even Netflix, it might 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 person habits, the workforce leaned tougher into data-heavy matchmaking, even refusing to indicate images till compatibility had been rigorously verified. However because it turned out, the very elements that made different courting apps frustratingly primary had been precisely what made them well-liked.
Three years after launching, Wings filed for chapter. As soon as assured that he might “repair” the courting trade, Nagaraj had as a substitute realized a expensive lesson: Some conventions exist for a motive.
Over the previous thirty years that Tom Eisenmann has taught starry-eyed founders at Harvard Enterprise…