Money Runs Out Last
Root causes, investor behavior and the window for a decision
More than half of the money invested in startups goes into deals that do not return what was invested: the company shuts down before an exit or is sold for less than was put in. According to Adams Street Partners, for 1979–2011 this was about 55% of invested capital. The reason for a shutdown is usually written down the same way: 70% of post-mortems say “ran out of money” (CB Insights, 2026). The authors of the study note that this is almost always the last reason, not the root cause.
If money runs out last, three questions follow. What happens to the company before that? Who can see that it is heading towards this end, and when? And why are the right decisions not made in time? Below we look at these questions through data and research.
The scale of losses
Shutdowns are rising. Carta, an equity management platform for startups, sees shutdowns among its customers: in 2024, 966 US startups shut down, 26% more than a year earlier.
What is your main sign that the window for a critical decision has opened?
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17 data sources and 20 research papers.
- Adams Street Partners, 5,600+ realized exits, 1979–2011 (via Bruce Booth, LifeSciVC)
- CB Insights, Why Startups Fail: Top Reasons (2026)
- Carta and SimpleClosure shutdown data for 2024 (via TechCrunch, January 2025)
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