Paul Graham’s 18 start-up mistakes
From
http://www.paulgraham.com/startupmistakes.html
18 mistakes that kill start-ups.
Only the points pasted below. Please see the URL for the details (for
a software industry)
The points are mostly valid for any start-up.
May be valid for social work initiatives also.
You may like to analyze your start-up/ future start-up from this point
of view. Please note, this is NOT one-size fits all.
Thanks
Pradyot
18 mistakes that kill start-ups
1. Single Founder
2. Bad Location
3. Marginal Niche
4. Derivative Idea
5. Obstinacy
6. Hiring Bad workers
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
13. Raising Too Much Money
14. Poor Investor Management
15. Sacrificing Users to (Supposed) Profit
16. Not Wanting to Get Your Hands Dirty
17. Fights Between Founders
18. A Half-Hearted Effort
The details at http://www.paulgraham.com/startupmistakes.html
- Indian Entrepreneur Mindset - June 19, 2011
- Presentation on Innovation Engineering at SlideShare - April 4, 2011
- Entrepreneurs and VCs can use Innovation Engineering - February 5, 2011
Whats the thrill in entrepreneurship if you dont make mistakes and it is so true that only practically mistakes make you a better manager than any MBA institutes. I would urge entrepreneurs not to be wary of making mistakes and spend time on how to avoid making mistakes. Rather just go ahead, follow your instincts and let the mistakes happen. Your ability to make the right moves and makeup for mistakes is what’ll make you a strong entrepreneur.
All the best.
outstanding list. All true.
I want to add:
19. Growth dependant only on raising big bucks. One can always innovate to grow
I think “Derivative idea” shouldn’t have been in the list. Every new innovation is getting build on top of something which is already in place, or it can be persuasively new.
Therefore saying “derivative idea” is one reason for failure is not entirely correct. Din’t Japanese car makers built few decades of dominance using same concept as Ford but adding new concepts on top of it?
Great!! one can use these points as a checklist before getting started. I am just wondering if a matrix can be prepared out of this 🙂
Do you have to make ALL of those, or a small subset ? Between 8/9, and 11/13, its a world of ‘tough calls’ 🙂
Essentially, after reading the whole list, one gets a feeling that analysis paralysis is what can nix most people starting out – dive in and figure out how deep the waters are. You cannot be too right/wrong – just be prepared to change easily.