Let’s celebrate failure. Celebrate those who dare to try hard things
It goes without saying that 2020 will go down as one of the most challenging years of our lives. It was a year that caused us to take a step back, reflect on the situation we found ourselves in, and refocus our priorities to better serve the people we care about.
After 2 years, Marc and I have decided to shut down Lever Health.
When we started, we were excited to start a company, build a team, and help our users meet their health goals. We are proud of what we built and more importantly the people we helped. We are both believers that the intersection of technology, fitness devices, and health professionals are key to the future of preventive care.
We all know that startups are hard, consumer digital health is even harder. We built Lever into a product that we are proud of that genuinely helps users get healthy, the right way. Unfortunately, we did not reach the milestones to continue to go on. It is tempting to listen to the “Airbnb ObamaO’s” stories that tell founders to keep going regardless.
Unfortunately, for every Airbnb, there are dozens of other founders who go into personal debt or spend all of their savings with no return. As founders, the traits that allow us to dare to try and build something that doesn’t exist is the same trait that makes ‘giving up’ so hard. Compared to investors who can make multiple bets, as founders, we can only build one thing at a time. Despite personal and financial consequences, we keep pushing forward despite everything. When we have left it all on the proverbial field it is ok to make the decision to shut things down and move on. We tried to fundraise, looked into pivoting and we tried to sell, ultimately we had to decide to shut down.
I know that it is hard to admit failure and even harder for me to inform my investors that I will not be able to return the money that they invested to build Lever Health. At the same time, we know that most startups fail. Shutting down and/or not returning capital to investors is the expected outcome when companies are founded. Investors know this, as an angel investor I’ve seen this to be true, and yet is still insanely hard for us as humans to admit failure. To all those who have ever had to shut a company down or sell a company for less than was invested, I’d like to celebrate you. Congratulate you for daring to try to be part of the 10% of companies that succeed. Whether you succeed or fail, I celebrate you for daring to try.
Since launching Lever, our Health Coaches have played a direct role in helping hundreds of members lose thousands of pounds while building sustainable habits supported by proven methods founded in the science of behavior change. We truly believe in the mission of this company and have done everything we can to help it become a scalable business; unfortunately, the negative financial impact of COVID-19 on our bottom line has proven too much. After almost 2 years of helping members reach their health goals, it is with a heavy heart that we are announcing Lever will cease operations at the end of January.
Personally, the time I spent co-founding Lever was the most growth that I have experienced in my career. I want to thank everyone who helped build Lever.
