Welcome to the Museum of Broken Startups

This is the time of year when love is in the air. It's not the only thing you are inhaling.

Other things are in the air, like flu, RSV, other respiratory viruses and COVID spoiling the occasion.

Articles in the media abound about all things love, relationships, broken hearts, and alternative relationships, dating apps and what to buy on the "safe list" at CVS for your squeeze while you are getting your fainting spells checked at the just opened primary care clinic. In case you are wondering whether that person wearing the red, heart shaped name tag is a doctor, here is a patient guide to color coded care.

When their relationship ended more than 20 years ago, the time came for Olinka Vistica and Drazen Grubisic to divide up their stuff, including a TV, a computer, and a bunch of vacation souvenirs. Then, they got a toy bunny, like the one at CVS.

Today, the former lovers run the Museum of Broken Relationships, one of Croatia’s busiest — and quirkiest — tourist attractions. Located in a former palace in the old town of Zagreb, Croatia’s capital, the museum displays objects sourced from heartbroken lovers worldwide alongside text telling each item’s story. The objects’ donors, many of?whom send in the objects by mail, are kept anonymous, to encourage them to be truthful.

No more calls. No more texts. We are breaking up.

Things are going so well that Olinka and Drazen are considering their next startup venture-The Museum of Broken Startups on Museum Hill next to the Museum of Physician Happiness. They see an opportunity. One person's trash is another person's treasure.

Out of all startups that are formed, 9 out of 10 startups end up failing.

Out of all venture-capital-backed startups, approximately 7.5 out of 10 fail.??

Out of all new businesses that are formed annually, 2 out of 10 fail within their first year of operation.?

Here is a list of items they want:

1. Expired or worthless options
2. Monogrammed fleece vests from failed startups and other useless swag
3. A full-scale replica of an open space office
4. A barrel of pink slips and videos of CEOs firing thousands of employees on Zoom in the middle of the night
5. You Tubes to put in the Pitch Fest Hall of Shame
6. Love letters from founders who fell in love with their ideas or operating system instead of a person

7. Used pajamas worn at virtual all hands meetings

8. Foosball tables and bean bag chairs

9. The black turtleneck Elizabeth Holmes wore her last day of work

10. The orange jump suit Elizabeth Holmes wore the first day of her new "sabbatical" and her LinkedIn profile explaining her career gaps with a trailer of her appearance on "Orange is the New Black"

11. A first edition of "Therantology"

12. Plastic replicas of a failed startup CEO's private plane

13. The winning $2B Powerball jackpot ticket. The odds of winning a Powerball jackpot are about 1 in 292.2 million.

14. A whistle

15. A children's area with a workstation where they can ask any LLM they choose to answer how to get from fail it, to nail, to scale it to sale it.

The museum is supported by a generous gift from these healthcare private equity investors. They are sponsoring a space for rotating exhibits. The first one will be about the challenges LGBTQ+ and non-white male founders face—not just in the UK and Croatia, but in the wider VC community—and what investors can do to support and work with them.

Be sure to visit the gift shop consignment store for used furniture, equipment, and kombucha machines or shop online at www.failedstartupstuff.com. All proceeds will go to the couple's next startup-The International Association of Digital Health Startup Failures chronicling the triumph of hope over experience.

Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA is the President and CEO of the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs