When it comes to startups, I’m a glass half-full person.
To me, every startup has the potential to be successful, although it does depend on a combination of their ability to execute, some luck, and being in the right place at the right time.
Although I don’t want to burst anyone’s bubble, here’s another reality: For all the enthusiasm and entrepreneurial bullishness, there’s going to be a lot of startup “roadkill”. Maybe not over the next few months but it’ll happen, and it ain’t going to be a pretty.
It goes against the grain for an entrepreneur or startup to talk about the possibility or even admit their startup is struggling, but starting any business is a high-risk proposition. Not everyone is going to succeed, no matter how good their idea, how hard they work, or how much money they raise.
Startups are going to flounder and fail because their products don’t resonate, there is too much competition, there’s a lack of execution, the wrong people are hired, too many strategic mistakes are made, etc.
As much as we celebrate every seed financing and collectively cheer when a startup is acquired, it is also important to be prepared for bad news. Startups will flame out, burn through capital or attract no customers – some of these failures will be high-profile, while most of them will quietly shut their doors. It’s the way of the world for startups.
At the end of the day, there will be plenty of failures, lost dreams, frustrated entrepreneurs and disappointed investors. The thing to remember is failure is a part of the startup landscape. It happens. Rather than wallowing in our failure, we need to learn from it so that the next startup doesn’t fall victim to the same mistakes.
Now, it’s your turn to provide some thoughts.
