Idea in Brief
The Light Bulb
Most start-ups don’t succeed. A foremost expert on entrepreneurship realized he didn’t understand why.
The Autopsy
An examination of start-up failures revealed two common mistakes by founders: failing to engage the right stakeholders, and rushing into an opportunity without testing the waters first.
The Remedy
Founders should take conventional entrepreneurial advice with a grain of salt, because it often backfires. They also should find the right investors and management team and avoid giving short shrift to customer interviews and research.
Most start-ups don’t succeed: More than two-thirds of them never deliver a positive return to investors. But why do so many end disappointingly? That question hit me with full force several years ago when I realized I couldn’t answer it.