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Mistakes you should avoid while building a startup:
A very personal account from my own experiences of building 2 startups; plus an inside view of dozen others started by close friends
A thread
A very personal account from my own experiences of building 2 startups; plus an inside view of dozen others started by close friends
A thread
1/ Scaling too fast
In my first startup, we scaled to 3 cities and ~$800K annualized revenue rate without proving PM fit and unit economics. When the funding shower stopped, it was too late to undo anything. We had to shut down.
In my first startup, we scaled to 3 cities and ~$800K annualized revenue rate without proving PM fit and unit economics. When the funding shower stopped, it was too late to undo anything. We had to shut down.
2/ Misalignment of founders vision, personal expectations & opportunity costs
All founders fight & disagree.That is ok. What truly breaks a team is the lack of trust, difference in vision or personal expectations. Talk it out in the very beginning. Purpose > Business > Founders
All founders fight & disagree.That is ok. What truly breaks a team is the lack of trust, difference in vision or personal expectations. Talk it out in the very beginning. Purpose > Business > Founders
3/ Selling a feature as a product
A friend built a business around a product feature as a differentiator. A large competitor copied them in 6 months and drove them out of business. Think seriously about your business moats.
A friend built a business around a product feature as a differentiator. A large competitor copied them in 6 months and drove them out of business. Think seriously about your business moats.
4/ There is more to business than customer experience
My first startup again. We worshipped Zappos. Went the extra mile to deliver top-notch customer experience. But guess what-it was loss-making. Delivering exceptional cust. experience at the cost of unit economics is a no go
My first startup again. We worshipped Zappos. Went the extra mile to deliver top-notch customer experience. But guess what-it was loss-making. Delivering exceptional cust. experience at the cost of unit economics is a no go
5/ There is more to business than product
My 2nd startup. We built a product that was solving customer need. People loved it. We thought if the product is great, distribution will be easy. Turns out, we were wrong. Think about distribution right when you are building the product
My 2nd startup. We built a product that was solving customer need. People loved it. We thought if the product is great, distribution will be easy. Turns out, we were wrong. Think about distribution right when you are building the product
6/ Starting up for wrong reasons
A friend started up because it was a hot space and investors were pouring money to any half-decent team in that space. Turns out, the party lasted another 6 months. A global player came. Funding stopped. His motivation fizzles out and he quits.
A friend started up because it was a hot space and investors were pouring money to any half-decent team in that space. Turns out, the party lasted another 6 months. A global player came. Funding stopped. His motivation fizzles out and he quits.
7/ Not being in love with what you do
Every startup goes through a tough phase. Right when you start, find out that one thing that will keep you going no matter what. Love for the problem you are trying to solve gives you an extra edge, called perseverance.
Every startup goes through a tough phase. Right when you start, find out that one thing that will keep you going no matter what. Love for the problem you are trying to solve gives you an extra edge, called perseverance.
8/ Building something ahead of its time
A friend built a kick-ass tech product on an emerging technology. It never got adopted. Tech is taking too long to mature. Customers/Market are not ready yet. Runs out of resources. Had to shut down.
A friend built a kick-ass tech product on an emerging technology. It never got adopted. Tech is taking too long to mature. Customers/Market are not ready yet. Runs out of resources. Had to shut down.
9/ Too much critical thinking
A friend plans to start. But always rejects the idea because either the competition is high or the problem is too difficult to solve or 10 other xyz reasons. Entrepreneurs need to be optimistic. Leave the critical thinking for investors
A friend plans to start. But always rejects the idea because either the competition is high or the problem is too difficult to solve or 10 other xyz reasons. Entrepreneurs need to be optimistic. Leave the critical thinking for investors
10/ Not thinking about founder-market fit
Think - why are you the best person in the world to solve this problem?
Find a problem you are passionate about and have skills to solve.
This last one is highly missing in the Indian startup ecosystem.
Think - why are you the best person in the world to solve this problem?
Find a problem you are passionate about and have skills to solve.
This last one is highly missing in the Indian startup ecosystem.
