Failing in Startups: 7 Rapid Fire Lessons

7 Rapid fire lessons learned after a decade of   failure in the startup industry

Over the past decade, I’ve worked with tens of startups in Ops/Growth leadership roles and launched 3 products of my own.

 

And I saw most of them making the same fundamental mistakes over and over again and ultimately failing.

 

So this week’s email is a bit different.

 

I won’t be sharing any tips on building or growing your startup

but the lessons I learned after failing a decade in the startup space

 

Let’s jump into it 👇

  1. Too many leaders put too much focus on sales and marketing without realizing the benefit of PLG (product-led growth) https://www.julian.com/guide/startup/product-led-acquisition

  2. Too often the loudest most enthusiastic executives get to set the agenda based on their own ambitions and opinions while ignoring the needs of the existing customers and ignoring the feedback of customer-facing teams. 

  3. It’s much more profitable to keep existing customers than get new ones. But without an executive team’s full support, customer success, and support are not going to be truly proactive.

  4. No one really knows what makes for a good company. The famous book “Good to Great” identifies 11 companies as great. Most of these companies are struggling, and 2 of them have already gone bankrupt. Don’t believe people who tell you they know what great is.

  5. Creating a startup is much like carrying out a scientific experiment. You never know what is going to work for your audience until you present it to them. That’s where validation comes in; getting people to see your brand is one thing but getting them to approve and invest in it, is a different

  6. As an entrepreneur and a startup founder, it is important to look out for ways to save time. You should only be working on tasks that add more value, you have expertise in, and you enjoy doing. Try to find ways to delegate other tasks to the right people.

  7. Investing in sales and marketing feels good. You see the effects of your work right away as you bring on hundreds of new users. Don’t lose touch with your customers, consistently get feedback and improve based on it
    The Number 1 reason most startups fail is building something no one wants.

 

I’ll be sharing more content like this on my LinkedIn profile connect here 

Anyways, see you next week 🤙

 

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Whenever you’re ready here are the 3 ways I can help: 

  1. Join me on a free 30 mins 1:1 consultation call focused on your business growth Book Here
  2. Grab your copy of my No BS Startup Guide here
  3. Follow my new startup Cicero.ly and start learning from the world’s biggest thinkers sign up here

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