Why do start-ups fail?
Rahul Dubey
Head - Digital Marketing - South Asia, Cancer Treatment Services International, a wholly owned subsidiary of Varian Medical Systems Inc. (a Siemens Healthineers Company) | University of Buckingham | Harvard University
Everybody is dreaming of his start-up these days. But do you know 92% of start-ups failed in last 3 years and 74 % of them failed because of premature scaling. When you are starting for first time and you got some zillion dollars funding, don’t know what to do with it. You hire too many people, scale without thinking twice. This has been the case with Food start-ups in India. They hired too fast , scaled in some not so happening places. Then realized they don’t want extra people so fire them, transactions are not happening so back off.
The question remains
“Why does start-up fail?”
Most ideas are bad- Even the most brilliant minds failed once in a while. Steve jobs tried to sell $6.5k NEXT computer to educators. Bill Gates didn’t saw the internet in its early days. Failing is okay, Quitting is not. Few start-ups got the pace in their version 2.0 like oyo rooms.
Someone is already doing what you are starting:
This is what Peter says in his preface to Bestselling book Zero to One.
ZERO TO ONE
Every moment in business happen only once. The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system. The next Larry Page or Sergey Brin won’t make a search engine. And the next Mark Zuckerberg won’t create a social network. If you are copying these guys, you aren’t learning from them.
But remember Google was not the first search engine; Facebook was not the first social network.
Good ideas are competitive; someone is already working on what you are going to start.
Ideas are cheap, Execution matters.
Rest of them fails because of the inability to acquire and retain the numbers of users. If you are starting a internet company, make sure user visit the site every day.
Also don’t raise too much money, don’t hire too quick. Quality is always better than quantity. Slow and steady wins the race.
You don’t need money to be successful and you don’t need to start a start-up just for the sake of starting a start-up. You can be a part of something successful and still be a millionaire.
Human Resources Lead | Employee Onboarding, Engagement, Talent Acquisition
8 年Having a long term strategy, vision is very important for any company to sustain. Accordingly aligning your staffing needs, investments, developing a culture that supports the company's strategy is very important. One cannot compromise on their human resources which is very much essential for any start up to sustain and grow. Getting in the right talent and proper usage of it in every aspect contributes to the development.
Senior Consultant-Business Consulting |IMT
8 年As per my views, strategic management is very important before venturing onto a new business.Strategic management comprise planned investment, properly carved business plan and future planning.
Senior Technology Consultant at EY | Certified scrum Product Owner (CSPO)
8 年If we closely look failure pattern across various startups like Subhiksha, Satyam,way2sms etc I came across a very important factor which doesn't allow startups to sustain is "Corporate Governace". A framework should be regulated across these startups to attract better investment opportunities for investors.One more important factor is about hiring performers and good talent in startups. This could lead to decrease in failure rate to some extent.