Top 5 Startups failures from which you can learn
While all these startups did not make anyone rich but they did taught all the entrepreneurs valuable lessons. Do not overlook these simple things as these little things make a big difference when you step out in the startup crowd!
The market is crowded with a number of startups these days, and coincidentally all of them have one thing in common: fear of failure. While the questions like what makes this fear so inevitable is important, what is more important is the way we can minimize it and eventually overcome it.
This fear forces us to learn from our mistakes, which is anyway a known fact, but the bigger picture lies in learning from others’ mistakes and experiences.
Here are top 5 start-up failures that you should study, observe and learn things that lead to the downfall.
NYT best-selling author — Michael Hyatt said, “I’ve let growth exceed my ability to fund my business.”
He made the ‘biggest’ mistake of borrowing money to fund his growing company in 1992. Sadly, he didn’t understand the difference between a healthy growth and a rapid growth. Ultimately, the company’s growth consumed all his capital and he failed to do come up with the demand. You can learn an important lesson from his failure:
Your temptation to seek outside funding without a plan can ruin your business.
Co-Founder and CTO of HubSpot — Dharmesh Shah said, “I made the biggest mistake of being a ‘parallel entrepreneur’”
He made the mistake of being a parallel (work in more than one) entrepreneur by heading two startups at the same time. Eventually, both of his company lost the race. His advice to all the new startups: Don’t try to ride in two boats at the same time; else you are bound to swim with the wishes. Lesson to learn:
Dividing interest between 2 startups eventually leads to failure of both. Go one step at a time.
Protect your company culture — Derek Sivers
Derek from his past experiences has learned that protecting the company’s culture is very important. The internal culture of the company never comes back once it starts getting skanky; until and unless you come up with the new team. If someone is polluting your business’s culture, then it’s better to fire that rotten egg out of your company.
Learn from his experience:
You need a strong and disciplined team to run a startup. If a dream demands a few firings, do not hesitate. You do not need such people anyway.
Leo Laporte tried to do EVERYTHING by himself
Jeff Goins — “Everyone’s an Expert, but not everyone is a master”. Laporte’s biggest mistake was to do everything by himself viz. media, content, and technology to grow his audience. His company had stalled out after a few years of instant growth as his business demanded expert knowledge about marketing, finance, human resources, and advertising but Leo was just not ready to share his startup.
And that is why you need professional experts to take care of things that you cannot. This is another lesson in team building.
The Best-selling author and an entrepreneur — Leo Babauta got little late
Leo hated his job like most people do but not everyone has the courage to quit and do something of their own. This is fear of failure we were talking about and Leo suffered the same. Lack of belief in yourself and fear of failure is the worst combination anyone could have in them; and unfortunately Leo had it in him. First, he started late because he had THE fear; second he lost his confidence as soon as started facing problems.
Result? He lost his strength and temper and ultimately the business. However, Leo Babauta taught us a big lesson:
Believing in yourself is the first step towards success. If you do not have the belief, you just cannot succeed.
While all these startups did not make anyone rich but they did taught all the entrepreneurs valuable lessons. Do not overlook these simple things as these little things make a big difference when you step out in the startup crowd!
And what startup failures and lessons can you share? Leave them in the comments below, we want to know you better!
If you want to learn more about startup failures and the ways to avoid them — join startups and investors direction InnMindright now and start building successful long-term business with our help!
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To be or not to be (a successful startup)?
