5 things Never To Do as a Startup

The startup journey is an exhilarating ride filled with endless possibilities and the promise of innovation. The thrill of building something from scratch is unmatched, but amidst the excitement, it’s important to stay wise.

In this blog, we’ll explain 5 things never to do as a startup, providing detailed examples and insights to guide aspiring entrepreneurs on what never to do .

1. Neglecting Market Research

In the rush to bring a groundbreaking idea to life, startups often underestimate the power of thorough market research. Neglecting this critical step can lead to developing products or services that lack market demand.

Take the cautionary tale of Juicero, a company that created a high-tech juicer without realizing that consumers didn’t necessarily want a complicated, expensive machine for a task they could easily do by hand. A robust understanding of the market landscape is the foundation for a startup’s success.

2. Ignoring Customer Feedback

One of the most costly mistakes a startup can make is dismissing or ignoring customer feedback. The relationship between a startup and its early adopters is invaluable, as they provide real-world insights that can shape the product or service.

Blockbuster, once a giant in the video rental industry, failed to adapt to changing customer preferences and ignored the rise of streaming services. By the time they considered customer feedback seriously, it was too late, and they faced obsolescence.

3. Scaling Too Quickly

In pursuing growth, startups often succumb to the temptation of scaling too quickly. Premature scaling can strain resources, lead to inefficiencies, and result in a financial downfall.

Webvan, an online grocery delivery service in the early 2000s, expanded rapidly without establishing a solid operational foundation. The company faced insurmountable challenges, ultimately collapsing under the weight of its ambitious expansion.

A gradual and strategic approach to scaling is vital for sustained success.

4. Overlooking Financial Management

Financial mismanagement is a pitfall that startups should vigilantly avoid. Overspending, inadequate budgeting, and a lack of financial discipline can spell disaster. For example, Powa Technologies was once touted as a billion-dollar unicorn. The company’s rapid spending on marketing and acquisitions without a solid revenue stream led to its dramatic downfall.

Prudent financial planning and discipline are extremely important to weathering the unpredictable startup landscape.

5. Neglecting Team Dynamics

The team is the heartbeat of any startup, and neglecting team dynamics can have dire consequences. Zenefits, a cloud-based software company, faced a significant setback when it was revealed that its rapid growth had compromised compliance and ethical standards. The CEO’s focus on aggressive expansion over internal controls led to a shake-up in leadership.

Nurturing a positive and collaborative team culture is essential for a startup’s longevity.

In the electrifying world of startups, where every day is an adventure and every decision shapes the future, steering the ship requires both courage and sagacity. The allure of rapid growth and disruptive innovation often overshadows the importance of strategic decision-making. Market research, customer feedback, scalable growth, financial acumen, and team dynamics are the keystones of startup survival. The future belongs to those who tread wisely, and in this balance between risk and reward, success awaits those who learn from the past while fearlessly forging ahead.

5 things you must know when opening a startup

So much ink has been spilled on the subject of opening a startup that it would be quite a challenge to bring out a new perspective, nevertheless, I decided to bring my personal observations:

I will not attempt to explain to you anything about how to open a successful startup and I do not have a clue how to make your startup the “next Waze or WhatsApp” – but, these are the 5 things you *must* know before you open a startup:

1. Good partners / friends

The first and the most important part in opening a startup is to gather the right Team – ask any angel, he would tell you that without a strong team you will not be able to turn the dream into a reality.
Finding a team of talented, ambitious and team-players professionals is a hard task (ask the next HR manager and expect 3 hours whining session), but finding your friends is easier – they are already there.
when your partners in your startup are also your friends, it will make the whole process much easier for everybody and especially for the lawyer (see section 3).

2.Good is better and better is best

Contrary to what you may think, if you build a new website based on JAVA you do not have to be the best JAVA programmer (though it will not hurt if you are) in the bizz, but if you build a website about how to grow lychee – you should know everything about lychee. I thought about explaining why this is important to be the best in the area – but I think it’s obvious, so I will not do it.

3. Legal help is not a dirty word

I personally, came across several cases of great teams who developed a prototype to their product and only at the point of trying to sell it they have discovered that the core algorithm uses a code which was not an open source.
Other cases involved great ideas stolen in less than a week after publishing and most annoyingly, the stolen product became the next “hot thing” in the market while the original one died unfulfilled.
Therefore, good legal help at the beginning will save you a lot of money and time when your startup become profitable.
P.S. try to learn from your lawyer, understanding legal concepts will help you to get a good answer for a wide range of dilemmas.

4. The worst enemy of “great” is “perfect”

I believe everybody knows about Pareto principle (the 80-20 principle).
This principle is proven to be true in so many cases, but I want to suggest another principle (the “Teddy nearly” principle) : the “95 – 5 of 20” principle, which stands that from the 20% of the work remain the 95% will take 5% from the 80% of the effort and the rest 5% will take 95% from the 80% from the effort.

The bottom line is that delivering a great product is hard (sometimes very hard, other time very very hard) but deliver “perfect” product is just insane – the amount of work needed to make the product perfect is just not worth it (most of the time).
So, deliver “great” products – leave the “perfect” ones for another time.

5. Do something new – anything

Some people will tell you that if your product is not doing something completely new it is not worth developing, I totally disagree.
If this was true, Apple should have been just a small company… When I look at the number of Iphones and Ipads on my “testing table” (the table with all the test devices) I realize this is cannot be the case.
You do not have to invent the wheel, just improve a part of it. Just be sure of the aspect in which your product is better in some way than the rest and explain it to the others.

Finally, just remember, most of the time you are simply not ready and cannot get all the above 5 points together. In this case, I am recommending you to go to a good outsourcing (WingSourcing) company with the best team of professionals and have great legal help who would execute your project great in a new way.

https://profitleap.com/5-things-never-to-do-as-a-startup/

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-things-you-must-know-when-opening-startup-teddy-lazebnik