Editor’s Note: Once in a while you see a stranger experience something you’re afraid of experiencing yourself. Like failure. In such moments most of us chant a tired mantra: “There but for the grace of God…” I have a more practically-minded friend who says, out loud to herself for greater impact, “Thanks for doing the research.” She means it. This morning a friend of Found|READ directed us to Phil Chrun’s very candid and revealing post about his foundering startup. It’s good research for all of us. We’ve highlight Phil’s lessons-learned, but you should read the whole thing.

My name is Philippe and I’m the co-founder and CEO of My Carpool Station International Corp. I believe it’s time to share the story of our struggling start-up with the blogosphere. You see, things are not going as planed. I’m not a millionaire lounging in my umpteenth apartment, downtown Bangkok. I’m not mingling with fellow captains of industry, preparing to launch my own venture fund on the side. Instead, I am quietly distancing myself from my pet project, my baby which I poured my heart and soul and mind into. Why would I do such a thing to something I hold (or held) so dear?

Philippe’s Startup-Deconstruction:

1. Our market research was not convincing.
2. We did not find the perfect product/market fit.
3. Marketing to early adopters is easier than selling to big organizations.
4. We were missing key business relationships with partners.
5. Core team … lead by an extremely driven, although inexperienced, non-tech-savvy CEO.
6. [But] the competitive environment was, and still is, manageable.

So what now? Does Phil give in? No! With admirable enthusiasm, his post concludes:

We’ll probably throw up a new landing page and re-brand ourselves while we try to figure things out. (Go Phil!) We’re currently facing the classic chicken-and-egg problem. What comes first: the financial and technical resources or the product and market traction? We score low on both at this stage, even though we’ve got an Alpha product stimulating demand, a decent amount of industry knowledge stored on our BaseCamp account, and local buzz. With resources, we could figure out exactly what our big customers want in a Beta product and are willing to pay for. With resources, we could launch an ad-supported Facebook app and OpenSocial app to generate buzz and learn about end-user habits. We’re always recruiting, even though we only offered stock-based compensation. If you’re extremely resourceful, note that the CEO post… is also open.

Read Phil’s whole post here. Found|Read wishes Indefatigable Phil much luck in his continued pursuit of success, with My Carpool, or whatever comes next.