TRC 036: Common founder mistakes and how to avoid them
Jun 20, 2024Read time: 5 Mins
I write quite a lot about the mistakes I have made as a founder. This is just a tiny proportion:
Last week I delivered a workshop at the London School of Economics about the mistakes I see most often from early stage founders. This is what we covered:
Company Formation / Early Stage Admin
- Not defining roles and founder terms clearly
- The company doesn’t own all the IP
- Neglecting important early-stage admin
Building Early Product
- Not understanding the market
- Building too much without validating
- Not understanding the business model
Fundraising
- Not being clear on what success looks like
- Not researching appropriate sources of finance
- Not being prepared for fundraising
Operations/Finance
- Outsourcing the understanding of your numbers
- Not keeping a close eye on cashflow
- Not negotiating everything
- Not documenting agreed processes (organisational debt)
Hiring
- Just filling seats - not focussing on quality of hire
- Leaving onboarding to osmosis
To help you understand how to avoid the worst ones, we put together this notion checklist that runs through the mistakes in more detail and the things you need to put in place to avoid them:
It also includes a more detailed list for business and investment planning.
You’ll make other mistakes (everybody does), but I hope this list helps you avoid some of the worst ones.
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