AI-generated summary
Starting a company is fraught with challenges, and statistics show that 90% of startups fail. However, these failures offer valuable lessons. Often, the founders themselves are the main reason for a startup’s downfall. Entrepreneurs can become too attached to their original ideas, unwilling to pivot when necessary. This stubbornness can doom a project if they fail to recognize when a change in direction is needed. The first key lesson is to embrace flexibility—if the initial concept isn’t working, it’s crucial to adapt rather than give up.
Another common issue is when founders let their egos override rational decision-making. Despite clear signs of trouble, some entrepreneurs insist they know best, refusing to accept help or admit mistakes. This pride can cause the founders to disappoint their teams and jeopardize the startup’s future. The second lesson is humility: success depends on setting aside ego, taking responsibility, and being willing to change course based on feedback and results.
Additionally, many startups fail by prematurely investing heavily in marketing before confirming product-market fit. Spending significant funds on promotion without a solid, reliable product can lead to wasted resources, especially if a pivot is required later. The advice here is to build a strong foundation first, ensure there is real demand, and only then scale up marketing efforts. Overall, cautious, humble, and adaptable leadership is essential for a startup to survive and thrive.
Although it may not be too encouraging, it is convenient to review those mistakes made by other startups in order to avoid them and ensure that the project achieves the successes for which you have fought so hard.
Whether we like it or not, the statistics are not at all flattering with those who decide to go all out and create their own company. Entrepreneurs make mistakes. The data speaks for itself and, according to a Forbes study, 90% of startups end up failing. However, all situations have their positive side and this circumstance was not going to be less. That is why it is necessary to review the mistakes of those projects that have not managed to come to fruition in order to know how to detect them when they arise and avoid committing them, in order to achieve the goals with which our idea has emerged.
Founders, common enemies
As contradictory as it may seem, it is precisely those who launched the idea and who have decided to put their time at the service of the startup, who are mainly responsible for the project ending up failing. After all, in the same way that we can resort to the classic ‘who doesn’t take risks doesn’t win’, we cannot lose sight of the fact that only those who take a lot of responsibility for the project are the ones who can end up making wrong decisions, those who can hire the wrong profiles, those who decide what to allocate the funding to… and, in short, those that can prevent a project from coming to fruition.
Reviewing this type of case, we can see that there are two main reasons why this happens:
- On the one hand, because entrepreneurs are not able to put aside their ego and look in another direction. There are many startups that have been doomed to failure because their creators clung to the initial idea and are not able to accept that they are going in the wrong direction. This is the first mistake we must avoid: if we detect that the initial idea is not the right one, we must change course as soon as possible. Stubbornness is not a good advisor in this sense. If something doesn’t work, there’s no reason to throw in the towel, much less think you’ve failed. There is always time to pivot, to look for new goals to conquer to keep the startup running but, now, in a new direction.
- And the other reason why founders can end up becoming the worst enemies of their own projects is because instead of giving prominence to rationality, they may be carried away by their egos. Perhaps, although all the indicators show that the startup is not going through its best moment, entrepreneurs do not stop thinking that they have everything figured out, they want to prove that they are all wrong and that they are the smartest in the room, the only ones capable of saving the furniture. To try not to disappoint themselves, they end up disappointing those around them who see how everything goes to waste, while the founders do not.
This is the second lesson: it is not about being heroes, the main objective is that the project ends up being a success and if everything indicates that things are not being done well, they will have to be done differently. In the same way that entrepreneurs have to be willing to put all their time at the service of the startup, they will have to do the same with their ego. In case they have failed, they have to take responsibility and try to correct their mistakes
Selling the bear’s skin…
This other mistake that can cost the project dearly is also the fault of the founders (responsible for everything, for better and for worse), but there may also be others involved. A circumstance that has pushed many startups to close has been to start building the house from the roof. This means that without having a solid base on which to grow, its management teams decided to invest a good part of the investment obtained for various advertising and marketing campaigns. In the end, it’s about spreading a message about a service or project that, for one reason or another, wasn’t entirely secure and reliable.
What happens if after investing a good amount of the company’s fund you have to pivot?
It may happen that, in the middle of the process, it is detected that there is no consistent market for the product offered, or that the service still has various problems that, although they can be corrected, reach the customers who have opted for it. This can mean that, as we have already mentioned, we have to change course. And of course, it happens that all the money that has been invested in the marketing department is now more necessary in others to finish finalizing the service that is being offered or, why not, launch a totally new one.
For all these reasons, it is advisable not to sell the bear’s skin before hunting it. It is advisable to tread carefully, strengthen each step we take and, until we are totally sure of the reliability of the project, that there are really potential clients willing to acquire it and that, once in their hands, everything will work correctly, it is better not to throw the bells in the air. If you are an entrepreneur or plan to be one, thiswill save you a lot of headaches and you can avoid an unwanted outcome for your project.
In the end, it is just a matter of acting cautiously, on the one hand, and betting on humility, on the other. Knowing how to listen to the advice of those who see the situation with different eyes and want to help you is essential if you want your startup to come to fruition.
