Your startup will die, if... | Hacker News Reader

Your startup will die, if...

7 pointsnickfrost8 comments

What are some of the most common mistakes founders make when building a company?

What are some insights you can share with other entrepreneurs about your experiences?

What's the biggest mistake you've made so far in building your startup? Have you fixed it or improved?

Some things to think about are:

Am I solving a problem people actually have? Hiring the right people Did I choose too small of a market? In building my business infrastructure, did I choose a solution that solves my problem NOW or one I could use for years, as my company scales?

Looking forward to your thoughts and insight!

View on HN

Your startup will die (I reckon 1 in 10 do in the first year itself), if you...

- don't build something you want first (dogfooding, has some exceptions)

- don't 'release early, release often'

- don't iterate on feedback (talk to the users, everyday)

- focus too much on perfection and scalability from day 1 (pre-mature optimization)

- don't focus on sales from day 1 (charge users, free is not a business model)

- don't start marketing early on (mainly content marketing, SEO, social networking etc.)

- don't delegate (outsource or hire) your workload when things pick-up

- don't stay frugal and don't reinvest

- don't have (or lose out) the vision and passion to organically grow the business into something big (in terms of reach, not necessarily size)

- your main purpose is getting rich (early exit, acquisition etc.), in which case get a job

[back to my trench]

Your startup will die, if... you are a solo founder with a day job and enough work for 15 developers.

- Great one xauronx.

Your startup will die, if... you quit or run out of money.

Winner!

if you cant find a paying customer.

To put this on its head, the way to succeed is to start by finding customers who will pay for a solution, not to start with a solution and look for customers.

- Your startup will die, if..... YOU DONT TELL ANYONE ABOUT IT!!!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com