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Your Startup Will Fail If You’re Doing Any of These 5 Things
After 8 years in the startup ecosystem, I’ve had the privilege of witnessing countless ambitious ventures take flight. Some soared to impressive heights, while others, many others, crashed before they could truly leave the ground.
What fascinates me isn’t just the success stories though. Those are helpful and they usually have 1–2 nuggets that relate to your own product.
It’s the patterns I’ve observed in those ventures that didn’t quite make it. The quiet, sometimes invisible decisions that eventually led to empty offices and LinkedIn profile updates.
These observations aren’t meant to discourage however. Quite the opposite. I hope they serve as gentle guardrails for those pouring their hearts into building something new.
Because while startup failure is common, it isn’t random. Here are five pitfalls that I’ve seen founders fall into time and time again over the years.
1. Solving a problem nobody has
The biggest sign that your startup is going to struggle needlessly before it even starts is if you don’t have a clear and concise answer to the following question:
“So who’s this for?”
