Why Startups Fail: An Analysis of Post-Mortems

http://foundersblock.com/anecdotes/why-startups-fail-an-analysis-of-failure-post-mortems/

by mayava • 15 years ago

22 7 15 years ago

scottkrager2• 15 years ago

#1 reason: Not listening to your customers.

That's interesting because I think that is a psychological problem more than anything else.

Getting your product or service in front of a 3rd party (not your mother or buddy) is scary for many people...myself included!

mayava2• 15 years ago

Very true, but there's a difference between showing your customers a product and not listening to them. I agree that the first step is pretty scary, esp if you're an introverted engineer who'd rather hide in a cave and code, but the main problem seems to be that when founders do solicit feedback, they'll hear what they want to hear, i.e. focus on the positive feedback and underweigh the negative. This supports a continued delusion that their product is as loved by others as it is by them.

scottkrager2• 15 years ago

So how do you combat that?

starpilot• 15 years ago

Blogspam, original article at http://www.chubbybrain.com/blog/top-reasons-startups-fail-an...

stcredzero• 15 years ago

An analysis of post-mortems, which are themselves a kind of analysis? Shall we all give our analysis of this?

pontifier• 15 years ago

I immediately thought of the Sieve of Eratosthenes.

Starting at the left of the image, you will see what is most likely to kill your startup. Go to each item in turn, and check to see if you are handling the situation correctly. If you get yourself a clean bill of health then your startup is "Prime" and likely to succeed.

If you run afoul of one or more of these items, then you need to work on some things...

I don't really want to talk in depth about how many items I feel I need to work on, but it makes me think about factorials instead of primes.

Why Startups Fail: An Analysis of Post-Mortems

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