Startup GTM Mistakes and how to Avoid Them: Part 5 of 5

Instead of: Staying the course on _______ because you’ve already invested a lot into it (time, money, headcount…)

Try this instead: Beware of the sunk cost fallacy and flex your #1 advantage as a startup - be nimble!

Everyone who works in early-stage tech is obsessed with building and growing things. Even the vernacular in our industry (“seed” rounds, “incubators”, “accelerators”) all foster this idea of cultivation. No wonder it’s so difficult to abort projects, change direction or just admit that something that we once believed in strongly, now plain isn’t working or doesn’t make sense like it did when we started.

This may be the toughest one on the list. The earlier your business, the more likely this is to affect you. Early-stage commercialization tends to be a series of hypotheses and experiments, and as such, should be expected to yield mixed results, with some things working and others, well, failing. As the startup halls of wisdom often preach, “focus is key / not being focused is a death sentence” so having the discipline, rigor and quite frankly, the courage to kill a product or strategy that isn’t working is vital.??

Here’s an example: As an early stage founder, you raised early stage capital from some great investors, with the thesis that you would find Product Market Fit (PMF) using a direct-to-consumer sales model that would eventually mature into a channel strategy.? However, in the subsequent years, due to changes in the market, competitive landscape and new data from early beta tests, this is looking increasingly like the wrong strategy.

In this scenario, there are some very difficult decisions to be made which will have a profound impact on your company, employees, customers, product and financials.? The lesson here is that change is hard and admitting you were wrong is hard (or at least, it was for me). As an startup founder however, you do have a remarkable advantage: the ability to move quickly, to course-correct and to re-think your strategy.??

The decision of “what to kill and what to keep” is often the difference between success and failure.

If you're enjoying the topic and want to learn more, check out?Part 1 , Part 2 ,?Part 3 ?and?Part 4 .