This is not going to be an easy topic to talk about, but it needs to be said. This post is about failure, the way we talk about it in the startup world, and the disparity between the way we talk about it and the way it is. ...

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Via: Jordan Cooper Written by Jordan Cooper NYC based entrepreneur...Sling the Venture Capital rock on t

This is part of my 4-year bootstrapping retrospective. Part 1: Why Bootstrapping Was The Only Logical Choice. A couple months ago, I found something I wrote accidentally on Hacker News. Having vitriol spewed at me. (Surprise! Some might say those two phrases are redundant! ...

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Via: UnicornFree Written by Amy Hoy I put the Amy in anomaly. Bootstrapper, product crusader, Ru

Our friend Cass Phillipps knows a bit about failure. After all, she produces FailCon, a conference where leading entrepreneurs and designers speak about their own failures. So it's no surprise that she's got a story or two of her own. And she's got a good one on how failure turned into her passion. ...

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Via: ZURB Blog Written by ZURB ZURB is a close-knit team of product designers who help comp

Every one fails at some point or another. However, very few can survive so many failures, and fewer would take one hit after another, and turn them into a lifetime of accomplishments. The following is the true story of a man who did exactly so... ...

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Via: Amir Khella Written by Amir Khella Made in Egypt, Assembled in America. Entrepreneur, UX , hack

Early in the life of a startup, the founders dream of dominating their industry. But things may take a wrong turn. The founders may shift from being ambition-driven into "try not to die" mode. While this crisis mode can be focusing short term, it can often lead to a startup to fail or to sell too early relative to its trajectory. A founder can get stuck in "try not to die mode" even after the ...

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Via: Eladgil Written by Eladgil

Not all of these are quite "deadly sins", but the "47 common mistakes of entrepreneurs" didn't quite have the same ring to it. Enjoy. ...

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Via: On Startups Written by Dharmesh Shah Entrepreneur. Founder/CTO @HubSpot inbound marketing and st

And failure was fantastic too. We've learned so many things, and as people were still loving us after each and every of those failures we were happy. And we were keep going, and we were keep on failing. But finally we understood that we had to stop chasing this vision. At least for the time being. After all it's all about the team, not the product. And some times you need to let go. ...

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Via: VentureGeeks

Growing a startup is a huge challenge. There are so many moving parts, and each one of them can play a key role in whether a startup succeeds or fails. There are, however, some common mistakes made by startups that bolster their chances of stumbling into the digital abyss. Here are 10 of them: ...

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Via: Mark Evans Tech Written by Mark Evans Startup marketer, conference organizer, hockey player, dad,

Being acquired is one if the positive outcomes of starting a company, it means that some other - presumably larger - company agrees with the vision and the product created by the smaller entity and has decided to express this agreement with an offer that was substantial enough that the owners of the smaller company thought that it was good enough. ...

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Via: jacquesmattheij.com Written by J Mattheij techie, coder, troubleshooter (maker ;) ), outspoken, always

If you plan to go and do your own company, or a company together with a bunch of buddies or some other wild thing you plan then I want you to realize this to the core of your being or you probably should not even start until you do: you very likely will fail but it doesn't matter one bit. ...

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Via: jacquesmattheij.com Written by J Mattheij techie, coder, troubleshooter (maker ;) ), outspoken, always

I've been on both sides of this event, and believe me, it is not fun. But it is, unfortunately, a virtually inextricable part of the entrepreneurial life, and what matters most is how you deal with it. I am one of the more upbeat, positive-thinking people on the planet, but when my first venture-backed company went into Chapter 11 it was perhaps the most traumatic day of my life. I felt that I ha ...

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Via: Gust Blog Written by David S. Rose Venture capitalist, entrepreneur, angel investor

Of the ten people I've worked with or knew well who ended up "failing", two had lines of credit with financial metric stipulations that they couldn't meet because of the "great recession". The others were to worn out to get up every day and face the long hours, horrible customers, and lack of validation for what they were doing. ...

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Via: VooDoo Anthology Written by Troy J Norris Former special operations combat veteran turned writer and e

Many salespeople spend their days doing everything they can to avoid having people say 'no' to them. This makes sense since we've all been taught that in sales, you are going for a YES, not a NO. As a result, many salespeople come to view 'no' as a failure and as the end of the process. However, great salespeople know that selling is a 'numbers game.' The more people you talk to the greater your c ...

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Via: Pipedrive Blog

Some people think entrepreneurship means going off and doing a startup. My definition of entrepreneurship is "finding what you believe in, and creating something meaningful by failing at it over and over again until you eventually figure out how to make it a reality." ...

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Via: Greylock VC Written by DJ Patil Data Scientist in Residence at Greylock

Whether your venture is a new pizza parlor or the hottest new software product, beware: These nine flawed assumptions are toxic. ...

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Via: Steve Blank Written by Steve Blank Customer Development & Secret History, Teaching at Stanford,

When a blockbuster deal happens, a lot of people get excited. The press is all over it, money comes pouring into startups in search of the next one, people quit jobs and school to get in the game. It's a gold rush. But there's another reaction that I have heard a lot in the past few weeks that is quite different. It is "why not me?" ...

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Via: AVC Written by Fred Wilson I am a VC

Every creative person, every entrepreneur and everyone who tries something new needs to realize and accept this. Your work is going to suck in the beginning. And it's going to hurt, because you'll know deep down that you're capable of doing much better. This is the main thing that stands between you and your potential. ...

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Via: Corbett Barr Written by Corbett Barr I help people build cool stuff online. Seriously. It's the b

The sins that require action are hard to ignore. Sins of doing the wrong things in the wrong amounts create friction and movement in one direction or the other. But sins of omission move effortlessly. You'll never even notice them. Sins of omission are the silent killers of startups. ...

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Via: Bryce DOT VC Written by Bryce Roberts VC, Dad

There are many reasons why businesses don't make it, but undoubtedly, the primary culprit is a lack of profitable clients. I know that should seem obvious, but if more people truly appreciated this fact, they would go about their business in an entirely different manner. ...

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Via: Duct Tape Marketing Written by John Jantsch I actually tweet at @ducttape, but I have this account to us

There are several versions of this statement, one way or another they glorify failures and in the name of exhorting startup founders these inspirational statements lead one to believe After a few failures success is inevitable You must fail first to succeed Fail fast so you can succeed Failures signal impending success ...

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Via: Iterative Path Written by Rags Srinivasan Practicing Effective Pricing

"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better." Samuel Beckett, Westward Ho Hackers break things. Sometimes accidentally, sometimes deliberately but we always break things. The joy of breaking things doesn't come from destruction, it comes from learning how to put things back together more elegantly and stronger than before. ...

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Via: HackFwd Blog Written by Hack FWD We're experienced tech entrepreneurs looking to support and

As you probably missed it on HN's front page three months ago, my post entitled "A Tale of a Miserable Product Launch". In it, I described our major face plant when launching illico, a little chat application. At the time, my intention was mainly to share our failure with fellow programmers on HN, and let the steam go off a little bit. After all, there's nothing better than a good laugh to compens ...

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Via: Stangeek Written by stangeek

Failure is not something start-ups, entrepreneurs or VCs talk much about. Using the "F" word is like tempting fate within an industry that thrives on believing the glass is half full. But the reality is only a minority of startups become viable businesses, let alone acquisition targets. The rest quietly disappear ...

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Via: Mark Evans Tech Written by Mark Evans Startup marketer, conference organizer, hockey player, dad,

Recently, a friend was trying to recruit a programmer to join his early-stage startup. The programmer had just graduated from college and his impression of startups was shaped mostly by popular media. His main concern, he said, was: “What if we end up being the next MySpace instead of the next Facebook?”. Of course, for [...] ...

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Via: chris dixon's blog Written by Chris Dixon Founder & investor

Last week I was talking to an entrepreneur about an idea-stage B2B startup. After a few minutes of casual talk I asked for the pitch: tell me about the idea. Now this wasn’t a technology idea, so I didn’t have much experience, but it still didn’t sound right. I wasn’t clear why a business would [...] ...

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Via: David Cummings Written by David Cummings 10-20 tweets per week. Tech entrepreneur who enjoys family,

US Bureau of Labor Statistics research indicates that almost 60% of businesses shut down within the first four years of operation.  Why?  Most fail for one of these reasons. 1. No viable market for their products Many businesses start with the strong conviction that customers will want their products, but without solid experience or data [...] ...

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Via: Business Planning Written by Rolfe Larson All things social enterprise/social ventures, author Venture