17 Mistakes Start-Ups Make by John Osher (inventor of Crest Spinbrush) | Hacker News Reader

17 Mistakes Start-Ups Make by John Osher (inventor of Crest Spinbrush)

cpd.ogi.edu

108 pointseventhough21 comments

This is very rare - a title that has been way overused ("{x} mistakes {y} make") - but still very helpful and original. If you're hesitant that this is yet another worthless list of fluff, it isn't.

The problem with these lists is that they're aimed at folks who are generally competent, albeit inexperienced. But I observe a good percentage of would-be entrepreneurs who aren't even competent enough to launch a product and grow a business to the level where they'd even have a chance to make one of these mistakes. Or, phrased more delicately, while there are sticking points at each level of business, it seems that many (most?) people hit the ones they can't surmount earlier on in the process than what these lists are designed to help with.

I don't disagree, but wisdom of things you haven't hit yet can influence early decision making.

Should this article be kept off the internet simply because qualified people may not read it? What you said is true, but it's not clear what you're arguing against.

Mistake 15 makes me think of a quote that always struck me from Machiavelli's Prince:

"Since men for the most part follow in the footsteps and imitate the actions of others, the wise man should always follow the roads that have been travelled by the great, so that if he cannot reach their perfection, he may at least acquire something of its savour. This is like the skillful archer, who seeing that the object he would hit is distant, and knowing the range of his bow, takes aim much above the destined mark; not intending that his arrow should strike so high, but, in flying high, it may land at the point intended."

I tend to think aiming higher has a better chance of hitting a decent mark. So where he says to know your aim but also know your limit, perhaps you should still aim at $10 million if you're trying to hit $5 mil. Not saying everyone's goal should be to overtake Google or MS, but just aiming at your exact target means you're likelier to fall short.

The flip-side I guess is that you need to recognize what success is for you personally, and reaching your lofty goals 100% maybe shouldn't be a requirement of that, since if you're aiming at $10 mil, $5 mil is still quite successful by most peoples' standards :)

I've yet to meet at single software statup founder that "spend (s) enough time researching the business idea to see if it's viable".

I wonder if that is due to the very low barrier to entry with software.

I've seen a lot of startups that did plenty of market research (including both my last failed startup and my last employer), but I've yet to see one get anything useful out of it.

There're a couple of pitfalls to be wary of when doing market research, like:

1.) Confirmation bias. At my last employer, we had an intern spend all summer calling prospective customers. He called 30-40 organizations and got through to a grand total of 2 executives, who were sorta lukewarm about the idea. Then my boss said, "Well, I think there's enough interest to move forwards with this project." Then we busted our ass for a year, put it in front of a bunch of other customers, incorporated their feedback, and it still didn't sell.

2.) Not having something for people to react to. People don't know what they want, but if you show them something, they can often tell you whether they like it or not, and possibly suggest things they do want.

3.) Calling the wrong people. It doesn't help to get the input of people who won't use your product anyway. This can be kinda tricky though, since you often don't know who'll end up using your product ahead of time.

Sounds mostly like bad execution of a generally good idea.

I think that's it. It takes very little in the way of tangible resources to build software. The biggest thing people need is skill, and they tend to believe they're skilled even in the face of contradictory evidence.

for a lot of the consumer-facing software startups, founders releasing early is how they see if the idea is viable

"focused too much on sales volume and company size rather than profit"

In internet startup especially, I often think too many of us are too focused on growth and monetising "later" rather than slower growth which actually incorporates a revenue/profit model.

One of the best articles on this subject. Thoroughly prioritized and focused.

Something I will add is that the power of these observations are not obvious when you have never started your own business. But having been on this path I have to completely agree with what is being said.

Thanks for posting this great article.

I thought this was a great article because it was very thorough and to the point. For me, the business lessons from the internet startup world seem to be transmutable to brick and mortart business and back again. Sam Walton's autobiography (Sam Walton: Made in America : My Story) has a list of advice at the end of the book that describes what he thought made Wal-Mart successful. I think this list is something that would be very applicable to the internet startup world.

The best part of the article is this statement

They say 9 [out] of 10 entrepreneurs fail because they're undercapitalized or have the wrong people. I say 9 [out] of 10 people fail because their original concept is not viable.

Totally agree. I can vouch for this from my personal experience and also as I watch older business people who should have no business managing or running companies.

"They put together financial projections as part of a presentation to pump up their investors."

An important point for those of us who may seek angel or VC funding for our startups at some point. It's all too common to hear entrepreneurs say things like "Investors are going to be looking for better growth than that...."

I think this is an excellent article, the point about seeking confirmation instead of the truth strikes a chord for me. It seems like you can boil a lot of this down to making sure you don't lose touch with reality and focus on making a profit.

Mistakes 12 and 16 are two of the most key things. Especially with web based startups. I'd really like to see more innovative ways of advertising, perhaps developers should focus on this just as much as the service they are building?

Great post! I laughed as I read each mistake, thinking of the times I had seen it myself. I could almost pin names of people I know to each mistake.

As I hacker, I love #11 the most: Accepting that it's "not possible" too easily rather than finding a way. Whenever I hear that, I become that much more determined. My mentor once taught me, "We can always find a way to do the right thing." The words "find a way" still get that Pavlovian response from me. </wipes slobber from keyboard>

Mistakes 3, 6, 8 and 14 sound very, very similar to what 37Signals and other web entrepreneur people are saying.

It's doubly true in software, because adding people not only increases the financial cost, but it increases the communication cost as well. In software, it's very likely that adding people makes you go more slowly, unless you take very careful pains to manage them well (which makes you go more slowly, though hopefully it helps them go fast).

FYI, he also invented Stretch Armstrong for those of you that remember the toy.

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