The biggest mistake founders make 🚩

August 28, 2023

Hi friends,

It’s been a wonderful, hectic week. It’s not like I’m a new dad, but there’s always so much to relearn. From diapers to sleepless nights. It’s rewarding and relentless all at the same time. I’ll be writing and sharing more about the journey in the future.

In startups, it’s ok to make mistakes. In fact, it’s good to fail fast and learn often. The biggest mistake founders make is not learning from their mistake. You could make every error imaginable once and still be fine. But you'll never win if you fail to learn from your mistakes.

Here are the most common mistakes I see founders make. I share them now in hopes you only make them once. I hope you enjoy :)

Jesse

🧵 The biggest mistakes founders make:

1. Hire poorly

  • hire purely on resume

  • play favorites

  • hire clones of themselves

2. Overpromise, underdeliver

  • miss deadlines regularly

  • never follow up

  • forget to make backup plans

3. Raise from the wrong people

  • accept $ from anyone

  • avoid doing their due diligence

  • ignore diverse perspectives

4. Build the wrong thing

  • forget to do research

  • stay in stealth mode forever

  • focus on features, not benefits

5. Choosing the wrong co-founder

  • choose their best friend

  • skill overlap

  • don’t discuss the future

6. Listen to the wrong people

  • ignore feedback

  • let the loudest voice win

  • build an echo chamber

👋 Hi, I’m Jesse, a seed-stage VC at Flybridge. If you find a fast-growing niche or paradigm shift in the future of work, reply to this email with 1-2 short, compelling paragraphs. I answer as many emails as humanly possible.