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I participated in a great Hopin event organised by Techstars this morning. Focus on mistakes entrepreneurs make and what we can learn from them. Three key takeaways:
PEOPLE MISTAKES
Taking the first funding that becomes available without ascertaining the chemistry with the investor.
Not choosing the right co-founder
MARKET FIT
Poor the discovery process
Asking the wrong questions.
Not addressing a real pain.
Asking feedback on your solution instead of digging deep into the problem and its importance for your target market. (Hint most people will be encouraging because they want to be nice if you speak about your plans)
TIMING/PROCRASTINATION
Delaying to take action when you know that what you are doing is not right. Holding on to your ideas even when they don’t get validated instead of pivoting.
What do you think?
3 Comments-
A good list Ilaria. I would add to the people mistakes – not realigning the team as the company scales. Some people are great at getting a company to Seed/ Series A but struggle after that. Others are aesome from Series B onwards. Different stages require different skillsets and personalities. Not everyone who starts wwith a company should go on the entire jounrney, and you need to continually add new people along the way.
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For sure the list goes well beyond what was discussed in the call. The audience was mostly people who are seeking to enter Techstars accelerators around the world so the focus was on the inception and very early stage.
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Some vital insights here, Ilaria. And I believe your first point is the most important. We’d be best served if we focus on values before we even begin to explore financial benefits. Get this the wrong way around & we can find ourselves exposed to some very ugly situations if ever finances are threatened…