My feelings surrounding Judy's Book public wind down

My wife asked me how I was feeling about the fact that the wind down of Judy's Book got so much press in Seattle (Seattle PI, TechCrunch, etc).  At first, I admit there was some shame. I felt like a failure and I was ashamed of not succeeding. Lately, however, I've been feeling (in an odd way) somewhat pleased about the public nature of the flame out. From my perspective, the publicity means that people cared about what we were doing at Judy's Book. This feels good.
In addition, the publicity means I don't have to have the awkward and painful experience of telling everyone about the failure.  You know -- seeing people in cafes, holiday parties, and in public and being asked "how's it going at work?" and having to tell them some version of -- "oh, I laid everyone off a month ago and am winding down the company". People already know the facts and they come up to me and say "I'm sorry to hear about Judy's Book. What are you doing next?". This is much better in my opinion than having to constantly tell people the same story over and over again.  Don't get me wrong -- I wish Judy's Book succeeded. I didn't start the company to end up winding it down. I'm just trying to share some of my feeling about having the wind down being so public.

Comments

[Jason McDowall]

Hi Andy,

You dont need to feel ashamed.. Everyone at Judy's Book did a great job and you should all be "Proud" of how popular judy's book is.

Jason

[Cakespy]

I read about this shutting down in either the Seattle PI or the Times...it bummed me out, because I think it was such a cool company and idea. But...I'm sure that the experience you got from the project will translate to anything you do next! Best of luck.

[Mark]

Andy:
I know what you mean. When we laid off the staff at Backfence last January and the announced our shutdown this summer, we were subject to an amazing amount of scrutiny and second-guessing—I joked that it was like being the Paris Hilton of the media blogosphere.

Worse, a lot of what was written, including by professional journalists, was wrong or speculative, without a lot of effort to try to get our side. That was hurtful, especially when it denigrated the hard work done by our employees. That said, the attention was doubtless far more glaring to us than it was to anybody else, and once it passed, it passed. Life goes on.

The point is that you took a chance, had the guts to act on your vision and start a company—and that's more important than any punditry about its failure. You've been so good about being open and transparent about what you did, and that philosophy will hold you in good stead now, as well--and others will learn from what you did.