Dear SaaStr: What Are The Top Reasons You See Startups Fail?
I haven’t failed as an entrepeneur, at least not yet. But I’ve made 30+ investments, and while many have been big wins, some haven’t.
Here’s what’s caused startups I’ve invested in to fail, or at least, not to thrive and succeed:
- Founder conflict. This really can kill some startups. I’ve had one where 3 co-founders forced the CEO founder out. The problem was, the CEO was the only one would could sell, or really understood the customers.
- Unable to control the burn rate. This hasn’t driven any startup I’ve invest in 100% to failure, but it’s driven them to unoptimal exits. Even if you raise a big round, it’s never infinite. Hire too many expensive VPs especially, that can’t deliver … and your burn rate can quickly grow 3x-5x bigger, or more.
- Counting on a bail out from the VCs. Related to the prior point. You just can’t count on more VC money magically coming in. Especially if you are struggling.
- Not willing to iterate enough. I’ve invested in 2 startups where they initially got to millions in revenue, but the market then told them they had to do … even more. And the founders just didn’t want to do all that.
- Too much churn. This is almost always solveable by the best founders, but too much churn will destory you just as you start scaling.
- Too slow to iterate. Markets change. Not everyone can keep up.
What hasn’t killed startups I’ve invested in:
- Small TAM. The best founders just add so many value to their product, they increase TAM over time.
- One Bad VP Hire. It’s tough, but one terrible VP hire on its own doesn’t wreck a startup permanently. Even if it feels that way sometimes.
- Competition Raised Far More Venture Capital. Yes, this can bite a bit. But I haven’t seen it lead to failure. In SaaS at least, your fate is in your hands.
I have to say, and I know it’s a bit controversial, but the best founders I’ve invested in — 0% of them failed. They just push through. All of them.
(image from here)
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Jason Lemkin, Khareem Sudlow
