diff --git a/compose/parallel.py b/compose/parallel.py
index 34a498ca7..32ee602f4 100644
--- a/compose/parallel.py
+++ b/compose/parallel.py
@@ -50,7 +50,11 @@ def parallel_execute_watch(events, writer, errors, results, msg, get_name):
     error_to_reraise = None
     for obj, result, exception in events:
         if exception is None:
-            writer.write(msg, get_name(obj), 'done', green)
+            if callable(getattr(obj, 'containers', None)) and not obj.containers():
+                # If service has no containers started
+                writer.write(msg, get_name(obj), 'failed', red)
+            else:
+                writer.write(msg, get_name(obj), 'done', green)
             results.append(result)
         elif isinstance(exception, ImageNotFound):
             # This is to bubble up ImageNotFound exceptions to the client so we
diff --git a/tests/acceptance/cli_test.py b/tests/acceptance/cli_test.py
index b429e3567..1dc9616a5 100644
--- a/tests/acceptance/cli_test.py
+++ b/tests/acceptance/cli_test.py
@@ -2228,6 +2228,7 @@ class CLITestCase(DockerClientTestCase):
 
     def test_start_no_containers(self):
         result = self.dispatch(['start'], returncode=1)
+        assert 'failed' in result.stderr
         assert 'No containers to start' in result.stderr
 
     @v2_only()