I received an IM today from a friend who works as a partner at a large Venture Capital firm who wanted to get my take on Paul Graham's posting about 18 Mistakes That Kill Startups. Paul, one of the founders of the Y Combinator, has put together a great outline of some common mistakes:
1. Single Founder
2. Bad Location
3. Marginal Niche
4. Derivative Idea
5. Obstinacy
6. Hiring Bad Programmers
7. Choosing the Wrong Platform
8. Slowness in Launching
9. Launching Too Early
10. Having No Specific User In Mind
11. Raising Too Little Money
12. Spending too Much Money
13. Raising Too Much Money
14. Poor Investor Management
15. Sacrificing Users To Profit
16. Not Wanting To Get Your Hands Dirty
17. Fighting Between Founders
18. A Half-Hearted Attempt
I've been through most of these issues with my startups and ones that I am consulting with. However, I'd say that #16 (Not Wanting To Get Your Hands Dirty) and #5 Obstinacy are the most common threads that I see these days. Many corporate executives who want to get in touch with their inner entrepreneurial self have a tough time doing all the operational work that is required with a startup. I can't tell you how many times I've heard the phrases, "I need an assistant" or "Lets hire an analyst to do that." Just get it done!
Obstinacy is also a big issue as many founders want to hold onto their ideas and don't want to adapt to the marketplace. You must embrace this. As the current teenage generation is growing up, I feel that this will be less of an issue as they are always adapting to new technologies but it is still a common theme I have seen lately with startups.
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