He's absolutely right. Startup failures make a lot of these "mistakes".
But here's what's scary: Startup successes also make a lot of these mistakes.
Think of a successful software company. Google, Yahoo, Amazon, ebay, facebook, it doesn't really matter which. Then, with that company in mind, go back and read the list again. How many of these "mistakes" did they make? Probably quite a few.
You can do all the market research in the world, have great talent, execute perfectly, and still fail. OTOH, you can make 10 or 15 of these mistakes and succeed fabulously. Sometimes, no matter what you do, the marketplace and lady luck have their own ideas.
At some point you just gotta stop all the due diligence, bite the bullet, and plow ahead anyway.
I like lists like this. They do get me thinking. The problem with this one is that it really doesn't tell me enough to differentiate winning from losing.
"You think you can't sell the idea until you have a product. This is a major killer - you think that as soon as you have feature X or Y, you can start showing people your idea. One more time - if you can't sell the idea, you can't sell the product"
What a confusing statement --chicken or the egg
I believe most of the articles on startups are just noise.
assuming the original idea will probably change until you have a product, it is not really substantial to make that argument.
I assume a product is something you can sell, so it's natural that attitude towards making it succesful will make you realise the need to alter the idea or how to make it appealing. It's something like a prerequestie.
I say most articles are noise because the advice is generic. A more precise post "how I reacted to situation X" is probably more worth.
But here's what's scary: Startup successes also make a lot of these mistakes.
Think of a successful software company. Google, Yahoo, Amazon, ebay, facebook, it doesn't really matter which. Then, with that company in mind, go back and read the list again. How many of these "mistakes" did they make? Probably quite a few.
You can do all the market research in the world, have great talent, execute perfectly, and still fail. OTOH, you can make 10 or 15 of these mistakes and succeed fabulously. Sometimes, no matter what you do, the marketplace and lady luck have their own ideas.
At some point you just gotta stop all the due diligence, bite the bullet, and plow ahead anyway.
I like lists like this. They do get me thinking. The problem with this one is that it really doesn't tell me enough to differentiate winning from losing.