Researching Causes of Startup Failure

In the writing on the page The medium, Kristoffer Tjalve categorizes 4 aspects that affect the biggest startup failures. The post was inspired by "18 mistakes that kill startups" written by Y Combinator Co-Founder Paul Graham. The four categories are also clearly described which are related to each other based on the stages that startup owners go through. The four categories are people, problems, processes and contexts.

People (including founders as well as team members)

Finding team members is one of the things that startup founders must do. You as the Founder are responsible for finding the Co-Founder, CTO and other support team members for the success of the startup. If your current startup still doesn't have a Co-Founder, you as a Founder are required to have the ability to make products, sell products, and carry out executions. Lack of ability and focus  can cause startup can't experience growth Significantly, to build a successful company, you are required to always be optimistic, and focus 100% on product development, and of course respect all input from team members.

Creating a sense of loyalty, love and pride for the products your startup offers to team members is one of the keys to the long-term success of a startup. But the most important thing here is of course hiring people who have the ability, can work independently and are able to provide creative ideas and contributions for the progress of the company. For key positions in the company, look for experts who are experts in their fields.

Problem

One of the biggest mistakes most startups make is create the same product with a variety of target markets. Then another problem is most startups creating a product that people don't want. AIt is a waste if the product you have created uses the latest technology and costs a large amount of money but is not in demand by the public.

Y Combinator Co-Founder Paul Graham asserts:

“Most startup ideas seem impossible to implement, if they prove successful it's no wonder people have done the same before.”

How to make a product for the consumption of only a few people? This idea makes it difficult to develop, increase the number of consumers, to get more profit. But this you can do and try, if the product you make has the latest technology and is fronted by a solid team. Examples of success after implementing ideas for people niche those are Elon Musk with Tesla and Google with his Google X project.

Process

This stage is an important position for development. So that your startup is able to go through the existing processes smoothly, start working on the existing processes gradually. Paul Graham often recommends startups to start work with small things first, avoid to do scalability. Another process that must be implemented properly is don't take too long to develop the product and too late to elaborate feedback. This can affect the progress of the startup. Ideally your startup must be launched when all components have been completed perfectly, but if it is too long in the process it is also not good for startup progress.

Another aspect that must also be considered is avoid to make a lot of features in order to create the latest and sophisticated products. Try to develop existing features as best as possible and highlight them as one of the mainstay features of your product.

Another thing to consider during the process is the determination of metrics. Phases that must be passed when determining metrics include building, estimating, and learning. Apply these three things to be able to determine the appropriate metrics for your startup.

The last thing that startups must go through is the issue of funding, whether it's raising funds, utilizing funding, to getting profits that will affect the company's valuation.

Context

No matter how good your product is, failure is hard to avoid. Many things affect the failure, including the lack of infrastructure, regulatory problems, corporate culture, and others. A good startup ecosystem affects the success of a startup. For that, look for the right location to develop your startup, find or create an ideal ecosystem and properly manage your startup finances.