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- ♞ Top Reasons You Fail
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I want to provide some insights into some of the reasons that I turn away clients because I believe that these should guide your priorities in the earliest days of your company before you even start to think about anything more than a family & friends round.
Team - I will turn away clients when I don’t believe in the team. There are a few reasons that I don’t believe in a team. Here are the two most common: (i) Attitude - if someone comes across as strong-headed, unwilling to listen, or irrational, I don’t believe in them. The best founders are confident but constantly learning; if you can’t listen and learn, then you won’t get far. (ii) Co-founder dynamics - sometimes it’s glaringly obvious to me that the founding team doesn’t work together well, and in those cases, I don’t want to be stuck in the middle when it implodes.
Product Market Fit - If you think you have product market fit, but you don’t, then that concerns me. Not knowing how to read the market is dangerous; it means you are following the wrong signs and building the wrong product. This is going to lead to failure in the long run.
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High Burn Rate - If you are spending at an uncontrollable rate (and often are unaware of it), this is a major red flag. I see this most often in founders who’ve never had to manage finances and are constantly hoping that by adding more, they will see growth. Startups are meant to be lean and efficient, if that mindset isn’t natural to you, then you won’t succeed.
Poor Skill Recognition - The top skill I see with successful founders is knowing where they have skill gaps. If you are able to know where you fall short, then you can hire accordingly and build a strong management team. When I sense that founders are wrong about their strengths and weaknesses, this concerns me because I know that they will make redundant hires and keep critical weak points for the foreseeable future.
Competition - If you don’t understand your competition, you’ll never succeed. This generally comes in two forms: (i) believing you have no competition, (ii) misunderstanding of the competitive advantage you have. Both mistakes are deadly.
Do you have any of these shortcomings? |
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Onwards and Upwards,
