Why this YC-backed Startup Really Failed

How Robert Huynh did it: Why this YC-backed Startup Really Failed

Robert built Nook, a blue collar job marketplace built in Vietnam. He built something real, made an impact, raised big, and had to walk away. It started while he was halfway through his MBA at Harvard, trying to figure out what to do over the summer — he'd known since getting into business school that building a startup in Vietnam would be a dream. His two closest friends decided to join him on the adventure, and the early days of Nook were very much grounded in the Harvard Innovation Lab and the Rock Summer fellows program, an accelerator within the school that gave them a small stipend to go build something.

The first idea was a copycat: home renovations modelled on US startups like "block renovation" that had raised tons of money, with copycat clones already taking off in China. They figured that bringing the exact same thing to Vietnam would make them successful. It didn't work — in Vietnam, like China, houses are built with partitions already in place and a lot of things are still brand new, so there wasn't the old-build renovation market the US playbook assumed. For about a year the idea totally fell, and they pivoted into a construction marketplace they realised they had to build in order to do the renovations at all.

The real insight came from the workers. The team they'd call to execute a build were working a back-breaking role for very little — Robert notes 180K VND is about 15 USD — travelling far, sleeping in the city, getting paid once a week, and often not paid at all when the largest contractors delayed. So Nook pivoted again, into a blue collar job marketplace. The first version was a TikTok-style upskilling app that nobody wanted, because they hadn't talked to customers. Then they realised workers were already finding jobs through Facebook groups — so they started buying up Facebook groups, consolidating them, becoming admins, and moving job postings into their proprietary app. That growth hacking is how Nook hit 50,000 users in a short time.

What ultimately led to the downfall was the number of hidden costs and profitability issues: workers who wouldn't show up, a working culture where something too good to be true reads as a scam, team leaders and middlemen each wanting their cut, and margins getting lower and lower. Robert was working in a field he had no expertise in, in a market he had no expertise in, in a language he was only semi-comfortable working in professionally. Covid lockdown stranded the founders in Thailand, unable to get into Vietnam to talk to customers. His co-founder Nathaniel took a long medical leave. After two to three years, Nook closed down. Robert's biggest regret was not pivoting sooner.

He's since started again. With a new co-founder, Oscar, he's building Reforge Labs, which builds performance marketing agents — an AI data analyst that sifts through performance and marketing data, doing creative insights, creative research, and data crunching of the reports. The lesson he keeps coming back to: the biggest thing that kills startups isn't running out of money, it's losing the motivation that has to come from inside — and carefully picking the co-founder who'll be there through thick and thin.

What you'll hear

• The pre-idea move to Vietnam — why Robert told his whole MBA section "let's move to Vietnam" before he knew what he'd build, who with, or who for
• Two pivots before the real product — copycat home renovations failed, became a construction marketplace, then became the blue collar job marketplace
• Growth hacking to 50,000 users — buying up Facebook groups, becoming admins, and moving job postings into the proprietary app
• The hidden costs that broke the model — workers not showing up, a working culture where "too good to be true" reads as a scam, and middlemen each wanting a cut
• Don't anchor to your valuation — why Robert thinks founders ground themselves to valuations too early, and how Nook just picked a number
• Communicating failure — why telling the team and customers was far harder than telling investors, and the no-sugarcoat approach borrowed from his co-founder's doctor father
• Why the co-founder is everything — the number one piece of advice that shaped his founder journey

Key claims from this episode

Quotes from this episode

Themes Robert returns to

• Motivation over money — the thing that kills startups isn't running out of money; it's losing the motivation that has to come from inside
• Talk to customers, write code — a startup is really all about the basics: talking to customers, finding what they want, and building it, instead of overpreparing for investors
• The cost of external validation — Covid lockdown made Robert aware of what external validation does to you; traction and praise made the team feel like geniuses even when they were doing the same thing
• Communicate failure honestly — acknowledge what's happened, don't beat around the bush, don't sugarcoat, but offer a way forward
• The co-founder shapes everything — carefully pick your co-founder, because they'll be there with you through thick and thin and shape whether it's success or failure
• Pivot sooner — Robert's biggest regret was not pivoting sooner