You’re right about these mistakes. Both with startups and with any other company.

I’m wary about singling out startups however. My experience lately is that there is a deeper problem (particularly with Canadian startups), which is the classic root cause of false starts: under-capitalization.

The unfortunate reality though is that you’re 100% right: startups cannot afford to make all the mistakes that everyone else makes.

Very recent experience as a founder is that startup leaders are actually the best at moving forward within lean budgets almost flawlessly. Unfortunately, “almost” often doesn’t cut it!

Thanks for your continued insistence to hold startups up to the highest standards possible.

I think you nailed it when you said the lack of a focused strategy for winning means you can’t tell whether you’ve won, lost, what game your playing or what the rules are. Bad strategy is an impediment to learning and I think we all agree that learning is the key to iterating a successful business. Be forewarned: I may steal what you said and turn it into a new post…

R

So often I see startups I invest in, or have run myself (trust me I’ve made this mistake many times myself) avoid the hard learning experiences of failure by casting their strategies so wide that everything & anything can fall within their path of validation to an imagined state of sucess.

One of the painful lessons I had to learn as an entrepreneur was that my success was almost always based on what I chose NOT TO DO VS. WHAT IS CHOSE TO DO.

When the playing field of opportunity is so wide & open, it becomes impossible to decide if you have won, lost or even what game you are playing & rules apply. Too many entrepreneurs start with a technology or feature & build their business strategy around a myopic view of how broad the potential for their creation is.

By not having to choose a specific business model that holds up in the face of business metrics like cost of customer acquisition, lifetime value of a customer or the sales cycle required to get adoption (just to name a few) - they avoid the benefits of having reality hit them in the face & learning. When you can consistently move from 1st base, to 2nd base, to short stop & outfield without ever having to face the fact that you have lost a game - you never benefit from realizing your mistakes & whether you should have been in a particular position in the first place.

-Austin