What are the top reasons why a startup fails?

Starting a new venture is never easy. There is no replacement of hard work, you have to work a lot to add value to your startup. In addition to hard work, the entrepreneur must need a direction and definite goals (achieve targets in a definite time frame). Absence of these two may lead to the downfall of a great idea.

Here are some points which can cause infant entrepreneur mortality:

Fixing a non existing problem- Do not build a product for a non existing problem. Suppose you are building comb for the people in a city where everyone is bald except you, that's a bad idea. Shift your focus from finding an idea to finding a solution to a problem.You make a startup not for yourself but for your customers.

Success equals funding - Associating success with funding is a wrong assumption. You are not building a startup to get funded from an angel. Adding value to your product must be your only goal. The parameter that must define success is customer acquisition followed by customer satisfaction. As it is said "Profit is a byproduct of business" same goes for startup "Funding is a byproduct of a well executed idea.".

Run out of cash - Spending on unnecessary things can cost a lot. Try to keep a healthy cash in your account. Cash in a startup is like gold, so spend it for important things only that are directly impacting your customers.\"\"

Trying to boil the ocean - To build a castle you need first brick first. With startup you may need 100 of features and you go to build them all, don't do that. Find out the most important and easy features first and build them. Follow the incremental development model.

Ignoring feedback - If you are building a new product the first thing you must note down is that you are building it for others, so what they think of your product is more important than what you think. Build a prototype and get feedback. Analyze that data and iterate, keep iterating until you make the product just as your customer want.\"\"

Doing everything alone - Being an entrepreneur, you need to have hands on every aspect of your product, however you cannot do everything alone. When your product is in nascent state you need to be careful about it, you will need a support from a co-founder. Distribution and delegation of work are the key aspects in product development, especially when the product is new and had no earlier existence.

Apart from all those points, I believe that startup never fails. They either end in successful business or end up being a teacher.

Feel free to add points in the comments.