I can only give this comment one upvote, I wish I could give it more. When you've got no outside funding and you're keeping your idea alive though sheer will power then eventually it grinds you down. Most startups fail, my guess is that this guy finally came to the conclusion that there were a number of problems which he no longer had the energy or cash to solve, I'm sure he gained a lot of insight from the process even if he can't quite bring that to bear just yet.
I wish him luck and wholeheartedly thank him for making that post.
The level of honesty in the post is touching. Figuring out the right time to quit is as important as starting up. However, lack of outside funding especially after he looked for it might also be a sign that either the idea or the was he handled the business so far is not viable. 1000 tickets over that much time does not seem impressive. Again, inspiring post.
I'd say the low ticket sales coupled with scalability problems was probably the thing that brought about the end - possibly a surmountable problem, but one that takes a lot more time and capital.
(ie, each showing requires staff at the very least to collect tickets - he makes reference to smoking and drinking with the bar staff).
That's the sort of problem that, if you come across it, and you're already low on energy + resources, is enough to finish it off.
They aren't really judgements on his life, and we aren't really interested in the story because of him. Lots of people here are interested in how startups succeed and they wonder what lessons they can take from it. I think you're right that people are looking at it in a bit of a simplistic way though.
It's a bit sad to see. Especially because i believe that many people here know (or should know) how complex these topics are.
In my opinion great article. Thanks for sharing that honestly.