The Fearless’ guide to avoiding founder failure

It’s time to boost your startup but the stats are working against you. Over 90% of SaaS startups fail. Only 35% get past the ten-year mark and only 40% of these ever become profitable.

These stats might scare you off but this is for the fearless, and if that is you, keep reading.

In a recent fireside chat with Renier Kriel, a consultant and coach with the battle scars to prove it, we discuss how to avoid founder failure.??

Here are three of the many valuable takeaways:

1.? ? ? Don’t get lost in hype. Focus on value.

There is a wave of ChatGPT commotion, only comparable and likely surmounting the original excitement around apps. Everyone wanted to build an app but not every app succeeded. The same will be true of offerings using ChatGPT and AI.

If you are a founder offering these services (or any service that’s being hyped about) in the midst of the madness, you need to understand if the opportunity is coming your way because of the hype or because you are offering value?

During the app days, many companies became operational, churning out hundreds of apps that failed.

The AI companies that succeed in the long term will ride the hype cycle but they will focus on delivering valuable products that help their clients succeed and not just fulfil their request for AI for AI-sake.

2.? ? ? Steal incubator best practices

Incubators are designed for startup liftoff. If you’re not a part of one, here is the acceleration fuel they use:

They simply keep founders accountable to their goals.

When you're flying solo, no one knows if you did what you promised yourself you would. Slowly, you can start to slip away from productivity. Having a friend or fellow-founder will keep you accountable and moving.

Accountability takes form in three questions in a weekly check-in:

1. ? ? What’s your revenue or success metric?

2. ? ? What’s keeping you stuck?

3. ? ? What are you doing next week?

When someone asks you these questions every week, you find a way to generate revenue, to get unstuck and to create a killer list for the week ahead because otherwise you start to feel foolish.

You might think that you choose a startup because you value freedom but too much freedom can lead you off course.

4.? ? ? Join a community

Building your own product can be lonely and launching a startup never goes as planned.

By joining an encouraging community where people understand you and can hopefully share some of their practical wisdom, you’ll have a better chance of getting over the hurdles.

Founders are inherently ideas people and inclined to hustle. So when a problem rears its hideous head (and it will), there is greater power sitting around a room of founders than tackling it alone. They might not have solved your problem before but they will have creative ideas on how you can work around.??

Being a part of this fiery atmosphere when your business feels like its cooling down will create the momentum you need.

You’re up against tough numbers but when you focus on delivering value, steal best practice methods and place yourself in a fiery environment of other problem solvers, you’re that much closer to telling those statistics where they can take it.?