Most first-time startup founders I talk to set themselves up to fail.
After working with hundreds of entrepreneurs and making countless mistakes myself, I’ve identified a clear pattern of destructive behaviors that plague nearly every new founder.
Here are the 7 biggest mistakes I see nearly EVERY founder make (myself included).
Table of Contents
Overspending
You spend too much money on things you don’t really need.
People love getting offices, hiring salespeople, getting VA’s, expensive video equipment, software, and even setting up an entity pre-revenue. In 2013, I bought a VOIP phone system a year before we had a customer!
Cash will be EXTREMELY tight at some point, even if it’s not now. Remember that.
Early Hiring
Hiring people before $1M ARR.
This is a hot take. I think there should be a technical co-founder building and a business co-founder doing sales, marketing, and support until $1M ARR – just like Klaviyo did.
If you have that discipline, you will be profitable, control your destiny, and emerge with product-market fit.
Ideas Guy
Thinking you are an “ideas guy” and can find an operator.
I spit out my drink when I hear this. Just like when I hear someone talking about “stealth mode”. Thinking someone will do the hard work for you at this nearly impossible stage is delusional.
Once you get to $10M ARR with under 10 people, you earned it, but until then, no way.
Scaling Prematurely
Not “doing things that don’t scale” under $1M ARR.
First-time founders don’t understand how manual getting to $1-$3M ARR is. It’s face-to-face conversations, however you can get them, taking the feedback, and improving product as quickly as possible.
Nothing will work until the product is great, so all that “growth hacking” will be a waste of time and money.
Funding Delusion
Thinking seed funding means you have a good business.
If you were able to raise money for your idea pre-revenue, it means nothing more than you could sell a vision to investors. The hard part is making a business out of it.
Keep that in mind and avoid funding at all costs. You’ll thank me later.
Social Neglect
Not posting on organic social media starting TODAY.
This one took me a decade to realize, and a year after I started to master. Nothing is more powerful in today’s world than being able to create great organic social media content that your prospects have demand for independent of what you’re selling.
If you start today, you’ll get zero engagement, followers, or leads, but that’s not the point… You’re one day closer to finding your voice.
Short Timeline
Thinking you’ll be in and out in 3-5 years.
Founders should have a decades long time horizon when they start. People wildly overestimate what they can accomplish in a year, but wildly underestimate what they can accomplish over a decade.
Conclusion
Being a first-time founder is hard. Literally everything is working against you. If we knew how hard it was, most would never start.
To recap, here are the 7 deadly mistakes to avoid:
- Overspending – Don’t buy things you don’t really need
- Early Hiring – Stay lean until $1M ARR
- Ideas Guy – Don’t expect others to do the hard work
- Scaling Prematurely – Do things that don’t scale first
- Funding Delusion – Raising money ≠ having a good business
- Social Neglect – Start building your organic presence today
- Short Timeline – Think decades, not years
But here’s the good news…
As Alex Hormozi so elegantly put it: Every successful person started with 0 revenue, 0 subscribers, 0 customers, 0 fans. And the only difference between them and everyone else is they actually start.
But that’s not REALLY the secret. The successful ones not only start… They keep building.