Are you young and enterprising? Get ready to crash and burn.
Every entrepreneur will fail at some point, says start-up investor Alex Taussig. But those under 30 tend to fail in ways that are “wholly unnecessary,” he writes in Fortune, ratting off a list of “15 mistakes young entrepreneurs make but don’t have to.”
Among the youthful foibles: being trapped in the “college bubble,” paying for things that could be free, making up stuff instead of saying “I don’t know,” and not telling a good story.
Here’s 11 more:
#14: You have no prototype. Or you do, but your users are irrelevant.
#13: You didn’t research the competition.
#12: You haven’t talked to customers.
#11: Your customer acquisition strategy is not repeatable.
#9: You didn’t practice your pitch.
#7: You know nothing about the investors across the table.
#5: You seek confirming, not disconfirming evidence.
#4: You pick advisors who are easily accessible, not particularly relevant.
#3: You hire for short-term needs, not long-term fit.
#2: You treat fundraising like an end, not a means.
#1: You do more than one business plan competition.
Photo by mjamesno.