The Profit Prophet

During my 15 years of helping start and working for start-up companies, I have learned a few things from all the mistakes I have made and from the mentors and advisors I have met and worked with. Though there are dozens of things you may have to worry about when starting a company, I will highlight the 3 Deadly Startup Sins that will pretty much guarantee your eventual failure. Leadership Actually, Leadership is the number one element in the eventual success of any new endeavor. And the number one mistake made with most start-ups is assuming that the founder or inventor should be the person running the company. History has proven this is often not the best course of action for the success of a company. Henry Ford stated that even though Thomas Edison was the smartest person he had ever met, he was a horrible businessman. I have seen far too many people, who happen to be brilliant inventors or scientist, be absolutely horrible leaders. Ever endeavor, large or small, rise...

E very startup team has different ambitions. “ Get big fast ” is sometimes one of them: raise as much capital as possible so you can hire an army of engineers, marketing, sales and customer service people. This is a very short-term view on what it takes to build and grow a company. For some reason, people often think companies with a big team are more successful. But in reality, it’s not the quantity of people that matters, but the quality . The bigger a company gets and the faster a company grows, the bigger the risk that people start feeling “alienated” from the company. There is a risk people will start feeling like a cog in the wheel, and a lot of times that’s when people start looking for other opportunities where they feel appreciated, where they can build cool products that are a true expression of themselves and where they can make a difference. As Stephen Cohen, cofounder and Executive VP of Palantir Technologies, said correctly , people tend to hugely underestima...