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Why Startups Fail: An Analysis of Post-Mortems

22 points by mayava 16y ago

scottkrager 16y 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!
- mayava 16y 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.
  - scottkrager 16y ago
    So how do you combat that?
    - mayava 16y ago
      A few ideas: show your product to a diverse base of customers to avoid any super-techy or early adopter biases (unless, of course, your product is mostly for them), quantify the findings, and be systematic about improvements. If there are issues in areas outside your expertise, such as marketing or UX, find professionals you respect who can advise you. Also useful to set metrics beforehand for what you consider success/failure, i.e. # of customers acquired within a certain timeframe, customer growth rate, engagement, etc.
starpilot 16y ago
Blogspam, original article at http://www.chubbybrain.com/blog/top-reasons-startups-fail-analyzing-startup-failure-post-mortem/ http://www.chubbybrain.com/blog/top-reasons-startups-fail-an...
stcredzero 16y ago
An analysis of post-mortems, which are themselves a kind of analysis? Shall we all give our analysis of this?
- pontifier 16y 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.

22 points by mayava 16y 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!

mayava 16y 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.
- scottkrager 16y ago
  So how do you combat that?
  - mayava 16y ago
    A few ideas: show your product to a diverse base of customers to avoid any super-techy or early adopter biases (unless, of course, your product is mostly for them), quantify the findings, and be systematic about improvements. If there are issues in areas outside your expertise, such as marketing or UX, find professionals you respect who can advise you. Also useful to set metrics beforehand for what you consider success/failure, i.e. # of customers acquired within a certain timeframe, customer growth rate, engagement, etc.

starpilot 16y ago

Blogspam, original article at http://www.chubbybrain.com/blog/top-reasons-startups-fail-analyzing-startup-failure-post-mortem/ http://www.chubbybrain.com/blog/top-reasons-startups-fail-an...

stcredzero 16y ago

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

pontifier 16y 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.