Famous Failures

Maren Kate Donovan is an entrepreneur and writer. Her first venture-backed startup, Zirtual, grew to over 400 employees before she turned 30, but then, due to the perfect storm of missteps, was forced to shut down overnight. She now uses her unique experiences as Managing Partner at AVRA, a firm dedicated to creating a world where good help isn’t hard to find. In the show, Maren and I discuss: How a haunted cane launched Maren’s entrepreneurial career Why she decided to start her own virtual assistant company and how she overcame the mental hurdles in making that leap How she grew Zirtual to 400 employees and $1 million/month in revenue Why the company failed overnight and the lessons that this public and painful failure taught Maren What strategies Maren used in coping with the fallout from the company’s demise Why she decided to become a founder again by starting a new company called AVRA Talent Partners How Maren used the lessons learned from Zirtual’s failure in starting AVRA You can sign up for Maren's