MyCity
MyCity was a GovTech SaaS platform designed to bridge the communication gap between local governments and their residents. It allowed citizens to map ideas for city improvement, while giving authorities tools to gather feedback and analytics. Despite initial viral interest from citizens and a few high-profile sales (e.g., Tromsø, Norway), the startup ultimately failed because it required governments to create entirely new internal processes to handle feedback—something for which there was no existing market.
The Autopsy
| Section | Details |
|---|---|
| Startup Profile | Founders: Stepa Mitaki, Dennis Funding: Bootstrapped (Personal savings + revenue) |
| Cause of Death | Market Fit: Yes |
| The Critical Mistake | Ignoring B2B Customer Research: The team spent almost all their energy perfecting the citizen-facing side of the app (the "fun" side) while neglecting to talk to the actual paying customers (local governments) about their operational pain points and constraints. |
| Key Lessons |
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Deep Dive
In his interview with Failory, Stepa Mitaki reflected on the dangers of building a product based purely on founder intuition. The original project, MyMurmansk, was built in two nights and went viral with 200 ideas in 48 hours. This early "citizen-side" success misled the founders into thinking the "government-side" would be just as easy. They spent years following their instincts rather than doing rigorous customer research with city officials. MyCity is a classic example of "Product-Market Mismatch."
Key Lessons
Software Should Improve Existing Processes: If your product requires a customer to reorganize their entire department just to use it, you will face massive resistance.
Bottom-Up Doesn't Always Work in GovTech: Trying to use citizen pressure to force a sale to a local government is much harder than it is in the private sector.
Define Success Early: Without clear metrics (e.g., response time, idea implementation rate), you cannot prove the value of your platform to stakeholders during renewal cycles.