“My First Business Died—and Set Me Up for Success”

My buzzy New York startup was dead on arrival. Here’s how I learned to build a new (and far more sustainable) operation.

- JAIME GETTO

In 2016, New York City made an announcement that locals had been dreading: Starting in 2019, the L train subway tunnel—a major connection between Manhattan and Brooklyn—would shut down for 18 months of repairs. It would be so disruptive that people actually moved to different neighborhoods in order to be closer to a functioning subway line come 2019.

Then, just four months before the shutdown was going to begin, New York’s governor sprung a surprise. He announced that the L train wouldn’t shut down after all. (The repairs would happen on nights and weekends.) Some people were elated. Others were annoyed. And me? I was shocked…because I’d spent the better part of the past year building a business designed to serve people impacted by this closure.

Suddenly, all my work was destroyed. Or so I thought. I eventually came to learn an important lesson in entrepreneurship: Even when plan A fails, it can set you up for a better plan B.