“What were the top 20 mistakes to avoid after building 30 startups? #startupmistakes #entrepreneur #tips“
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This is gold.
I’m a young entrepreneur working to build a B2B services platform.
Would be very happy to get some mentorship from you, if your time permits.
Great insights
Biggest regret is exactly the same as you with No.14
Unfortunately it was initially going great so that really clouded my better judgment. I believed I was doing something wrong or just missing some final piece to the puzzle
Was real “I can save her” energy
How did you have the willpower to keep going after the 5th, 10th, 26th etc start up failed?
Or I’m maybe missing this part, how many of them failed?
bro you forgot the link at the bottom to your newsletter
😉
Im saving this so hard
How did you find the ideas needed to create 30 startups? And how did you validate your ideas afterwards? Did you have to build an MVP first or did you speak to your customers first?
My mistakes of the most recent 2 startups (still going but not for much longer). I will try and keep one going as it’s abit of a unicorn in my area, but it doesn’t cover the bills on its own. I’ll probably need staff so I can go back to a normal job.
1. Maxing loans and buying loads of equipment, thinking I can do lots of different services. I’m seriously in the brown at the moment, highly unmotivated, burnt out, and completely lost with lots of toys, but no initiate or drive to do anything.
2. Doing way way too much. For 2 years, I’d worked nearly ever hour I could, working full time 7-5 5 days a week, 5-11 and weekends on my 2 startups. 1 is the unicorn and niche, but only seasonal. The other was going to be the complimentary income. I’ve now finished my full time role, but it’s caused me to go into a spiral. I’m unmotivated, lonely, tired all the time, and instead of it giving me 45 to 50 hours back a week, my output on the 2 side hustles just filled that time still with the same output/turnover, it’s a mental and physical disaster. I’m over weight, in debt and mentally and financially at wits end! (Why can’t I just be a normal person, 9-5 and play golf or hang out with my wife and friends? I’m highly self destructive!
Having a rubbish accountant. I’m still paying a lot of money and not getting anything good back. I’ve gone Limited after not taking any solid advice. For my last tax return, they did a soft check, made sure everything lined up roughly, then pressed send on my accounts software, and automatically submitted a return. Absolutely wasting money there.
Taking on staff who, as op said… I wouldn’t hug. They’ve rinsed my business of profit by doing half assed work… Left a bad taste in the mouth of any customer they’ve worked for… the majority of which I either lost or am still having to correct mistakes unpaid. I am trying to be a good manager. I don’t think I am, I might be an ok supervisor, but I’m not great at getting the right people to do what I need. I need to work on that.
“Scrum is a scam”
The world where scrum was invented doesn’t exist.
For most projects, two week sprints are insanely long release cycles.
Everyone looks to scrum to solve their problems, which is the antithesis of the core values of scrum.
Do you have any resources for going out to raise your first VC money? I’m about to embark in VC funding for my food company that is already revenueing.
How far along did you get your consumer apps before you considered them a failure? How much traction did they get to at their peek?
Wow, this is point for point what should be sent to the founder of the startup I was a part of that just collapsed lmao
Truth.
Oh yeah; this is the good stuff.
Love number 16!!
I like this list a lot except for #16. Scrum is a philosophy and methodology that has had enormous impact on software development. What method do you suggest then? Waterfall? Cleanroom? Spiral? Prototyping? Your criticism makes me wonder if you are not actually critical of Scrum but of poorly implemented Scrum.
Fantastic insights! Thank you for putting this together! 👏
Recommendations for boilerplate code?
#19 seems like a no brainer if you follow “minimum viable product” principles. Don’t spend time making it perfect, smash a bunch of code together and get it working first. You can always hire an system engineer to bridge things together later in the process.
The “doers” one is gold, even if it isn’t a bullet point. I’m the solo dev for a startup right now (full stack), and there are so many people that want to advise and tell us what to do and how to do it – partner as a consultant.
We don’t need consultation, we need roll up your sleeves and code. Can’t, please stop wasting our time.
This is something I wish the CEO would stop bringing up. Meetings with consultants… advice on how to do things. Talk is cheap.
Poor fullstack dev, I bet you are saving a lot w him
Experience building at least 5 startups and these are also most of my experiences.
Its only “VC” investment that I have not experienced as its virtually non-existent in my country.
How’s B2C is lottery? Explain plz
Really nice insights. Would like to know how do you decide which problem to solve through your startup? Does this knowledge come with experience?
How does one decide that I will be paid for this stuff by people/business
Excellent post. I see lots of things here relevant to me in manufacturing. Thanks.
Excellent post. I see lots of things here relevant to me in manufacturing. Thanks.
Edit: biggest regret: not firing fast enough when conditions change. Firing people sucks, but running out of money sucks more, then everyone loses.
I am not exactly looking for a job but you seem like a very nice and learned person. I am a full stack developer and I would be very happy to be interviewed by you or your team in case there is something for me.
This is incredibly valuable, thank you for sharing these though lessons. 🙏
30 startups in 20 years, and “have the attention span of a toddler” didn’t make the list of regrets.
Incredible list.
John, I might add:
* **Thinking you need a lot of money to start a venture**
* **Not seeking a co-founder:** mainly for the emotional load of creating a company
* **Underestimating the importance of cybersecurity:** Many founders struggle with cyberattacks.
* **Pivoting too late:** The business landscape can change rapidly. Startups need to be able to pivot and adjust their strategies as needed.
* **Focusing solely on growth hacking:** While user acquisition is important, neglecting long-term customer retention and satisfaction can be detrimental.
* **Not focusing in marketing:** while having a great product is important, distribution must be considered.
Relatable list, especially on SEO and content marketing.
What is consumer app? Sorry I’m not native speaker
Reflecting on these, SEO and content marketing are key.
Interesting read and perspective. Never give up, keep up trying.
30! start ups, that sounds crazy for me.
i built 2 succesfull companies in 15 years.
it is alot of work…how can you fkn build 30! start ups?!
This is excellent. Thank you for your wisdom
Number 11 is fairly profound. Never thought of it. First post I’ve see here that makes sense.
Your biggest mistake was launching 30 startups in 20 years. Amazon didn’t make a profit for 10 years. Tesla needed 17. I joined a company as employee #10. 7 years later it sold for $100 million. It also took years to make a profit and it took a leadership team entirely focused on building a great product rather than building something they could flip.