What Building 1,000 Products Taught Us About Startup Success

Around 90% of startups don’t survive, and according to research, 42% fail because they solve the wrong problem: they never reach true product‑market fit. Many go down right after validation but just before traction, and not because their ideas are bad.

It’s because they lack access to what actually drives momentum: the right team with the right (startup) mindset, the right processes to start and scale a venture, and the right customer access.

Before you ask, no, funding doesn’t necessarily help. In fact, 75% of venture-backed startups still fail, according to research by Harvard.

So how do successful startups avoid stalling post-validation?

That’s what we’ll discover in this Website Planet interview with Robin Dohmen, co-CEO & founder of OWOW, a venture studio that helps founders go from problems, to prototype, to paying customers in months.

Let’s pick his brain.

Why most startups fail even with a great idea

After building a thousand digital products like we did within OWOW’s Product Studio, you start to notice patterns:

Some founders succeed. Most don’t. And often, it has nothing to do with the quality of the idea itself.

We’ve seen brilliant concepts fall flat, not because they weren’t valuable, but because the founders couldn’t close the gap between validation and traction.

That messy middle? We call it the ‘Death Valley’. It’s where energy fades, money burns, and startups quietly disappear due to lack of the right traction.

It’s frustrating to watch, and even more frustrating when the difference between making it and missing it comes down to access:

Access to the right top-tier talent for the job
Access to the right tools & processes
Access to the right first customers

The truth is, the economy isn’t a fair playing field. Some teams have leverage. Most don’t.

So we built the OWOW Venture Studio to give new ventures a fighting chance.

The Solution: A Team That Builds With You

For years, OWOW has been helping companies build software. MVPs. Mobile application. Large web platforms. Intelligent business automations. AI agents. You name it. But at some point, we started asking ourselves: what if we didn’t just build for clients? What if we built for ourselves too?

Not as investors. Not as advisors. But as co-builders, as your temporary co-founders.

That idea became the OWOW Venture Studio: a structured, high-speed model for launching AI-powered digital ventures backed by our in-house product- & venture teams, focused on the more traditional industries we know best: logistics & distribution, construction & building and golf & sportstech.

Some ventures we initiate ourselves. We identify the problem, validate the need, then find and back a strong founding team. Other times, early-stage founders come to us with momentum and a concept, and we jump in to co-build, accelerating product development and customer traction.

Either way, the model is the same: embed deeply, move fast, and build for revenue—not vanity.

“ Working with OWOW feels like a true partnership. Their dedication, communication, and attention to detail make the entire journey smooth and impactful. They’re more than just a service provider—they’re a team you want on your side. “
Tristan Bierenbroodspot, CEO of ShareLogistics

Why All Types Of Founders Need a Co-builder

In our experience, startup founders tend to fall into one of three types:

The Expert: usually an industry insider, someone who’s lived the problem firsthand and is obsessed with solving it. They know where the friction is. They just need the right team to execute.
The Entrepreneur: they see market inefficiencies and know how to spot opportunity. They might not come from the industry, but they have the drive and insight to make things work.
The Builder: designers, engineers, or PMs who want to stop working on features no one uses, and start building something real, based on opportunity.

What they all share: urgency, clarity, and a willingness to move fast.

We’re not here for generalist SaaS plays or AI decks with no use case. We’re here to co-build digital ventures grounded in real operational pain, especially in industries where software adoption has historically lagged behind.

Just a Better Way to Build

We don’t believe in building blindly. Before anything else, we go deep on the problem: we test assumptions, run user interviews, and kill weak ideas early.

Once we’re confident the problem is real, we shape the story. We work with founders to refine the value proposition, align it with a clear customer segment, and build a simple, sharp narrative.

Then we build. Fast. Using our own OWOW Atlas framework (Next.js + Payload CMS), we ship lean MVPs in focused sprints. We’ve built hundreds of products before this, so we know how to avoid bloated specs and keep momentum high.

But the most important part happens after launch. We help founders get their first customers—real pilots, with real stakes. We do this through our client network, through backchannels, through hustle. Because nothing validates a venture faster than someone paying for it.

Once the venture has traction, we help spin it out: fundraising, hiring, scaling. We stay involved, because we’re in it as partners, not vendors.

Why Co-building With OWOW Works Where Others Fail

This isn’t an accelerator. It’s not an incubator. It’s not mentorship with a side of Slack.

It’s a real team of venture builders, designers, engineers, strategists and marketers embedded with the venture from day one.

In fact, we limit how many ventures we take on each year because the work is intense and high-touch.

The best ideas don’t fail because they’re wrong. They fail because there’s no structure, they’re slow, and the team is incomplete. We fix that.

Ver.iD is a great example: they had a concept, a prototype, and no traction. We helped validate the market, rebuild the product, and land customers. Within a few months, they had revenue, a team, and funding. That’s the model working as it should.

Looking Ahead

We’re based in Eindhoven because we believe in European talent, but we’re building for global scale. Our goal isn’t volume. It’s momentum. We’re launching three ventures a year, one ourselves, and two in co-creation external startup teams. We’re backing founders who care more about solving problems than riding trends.

If you’re building something real—especially in logistics, industrials, or applied AI—and you’re ready to move fast, we should talk.

We’re not here to build pitch decks. We’re here to build companies.