While starting a tech business is a fight in its own, making it a successful entity is a whole other challenge. Having said that, business success is also largely dependent on steering away from making mistakes that will invariably kill your tech startup.
However, you don’t have to be a business scholar or a master entrepreneur to do this.
A tactical way of avoiding making mistakes is to constantly evolve your approach and amend mistakes that have already been made.
Below is a list of six mistakes that will most likely kill your tech startup.
So, if you happen to be facing any of these issues or anticipate any of the issues cropping up in the future, our recommendation is to nip them in the bud and tackle them head-on rather than waiting for them to escalate.
6 Mistakes That Will Most Likely Kill Your Tech Startup
Mistake 1: Too Many Founders or Sole Founder
To begin with, the first mistake that will kill your tech startup is the number of founding members.
A single founder will have to assume all the responsibility of the business from inception to implementation.
This can get supremely difficult to do as the business grows and responsibilities increase.
As a single founder, you may not like the inclusion of partners or the fact that you have to part with equity or a senior management team taking the day to day decisions.
This will lead to internal feuds and politics which is lethal and will kill your tech startup in the future.
Alternatively, having too many partners and equity stakeholders is also problematic.
Especially inexperienced shareholders and partners may be difficult to handle since their goals and agendas might not be aligned to the business’s goals.
This is one of the biggest reasons behind startups failing.
Mistake 2: Poor Idea Conception and Implementation
A common mistake that most entrepreneurs make is imitating successful tech ideas followed by poor implementation.
Tech startups are about solving everyday problems in an efficient and innovative fashion.
Therefore, instead of solving a problem that is already being addressed, it’s better to look for other problems that haven’t been solved.
Build a product or service that solves something that hasn’t been done before instead of replicating another business’s idea.
Another mistake that will kill your tech startup is the poor implementation of ideas.
In fact, many successful tech entrepreneurs believe that effective implementation of mediocre ideas is better than having a clever idea that is implemented in a sloppy way.
Mistake 3: Bad Location
Where you decide to establish your tech business is an imperative decision. For instance, tech startups are known to prosper in places like Silicon Valley.
Why?
Because that’s where all the experts are located, talent qualities and living standards are higher, people understand what you’re building, the people you want to hire live there or want to live there, and all the supporting and ancillary industries are there.
Having said that, most top cities make for major startup hubs.
Cities from all over the world like Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangalore, Tel Aviv, London, Copenhagen, Dublin, Berlin, to name a few., make for great startup hobs.
You should pick a location where you know your business will thrive because an odd location will only make things difficult and will slowly kill your tech startup.
Mistake 4: Hiring The Wrong People
Most startups fail because they hire too many people at the wrong time.
The problem worsens when these people are not interested in the growth of the company and don’t share the same passion.
In order to find success, you should hire people who understand what you are doing and what your company is about.
However, hiring yes-men isn’t the way to go. Your team should consist of people who contribute passionately to help you make improvements to the business.
Another mistake that will surely kill your tech startup is hiring bad programmers and developers.
This is especially valid if the founder doesn’t have a programming background.
Hiring bad programmers will destroy your tech startup faster than a house of cards in a whirlwind because the founder won’t have much control or understanding of what is happening.
Mistake 5: Picking the Wrong Platform
A platform can be anything from an operating system to a programming language to a “framework” that is built on a programming language.
Your platform is the basis of your tech business as it supports and strengthens the foundation of it.
The scary thing about platforms is that there is no guarantee of their longevity and effectiveness.
Take Java, for instance. It was slated to be the most promising way of building smartphone applications.
This belief killed almost all the tech startups who believed it.
If you’re not a programmer, the best way to choose your development platform is to hire good programmers and let them take their pick.
Alternatively, you should deep dive and research what platforms leading companies are using.
Mistake 6: Not Raising Enough Money Or Raising Too Much
Most successful tech businesses have taken funding at some point in their lifecycle.
Too little money means not enough to get your business going. This could mean anything from not being able to build a working prototype to launching your finished product.
So, the first step of startup fundraising is to raise enough funds to get to the next step.
It’s quite obvious how raising little money could kill your tech startup, but there is a problem of raising too much money too.
Actually, the problem is not so much with the money but more to do with what comes along with it.
If you receive funding from VCs or angel investors, they’re going to want their money to do its work.
This means you’ll probably have to part with major equity and this may dissuade your partners from giving it their all.
Additionally, this will also mean that you are more accountable for your decisions.
Our recommendation would be to accept the first reasonable deal you get.
Go ahead and accept VC money that comes from a reputable firm at decent valuation with no unusual or outlandish terms.
Don’t waste time hunting and bargaining with investors. Alternatively, you can also resort to crowdfunding.
Final Thoughts
The idea behind this article is that it’s easier to remember what you shouldn’t do versus what you should do.
Even though there are many more mistakes that can kill your tech startup, the ones we’ve listed here are the usual suspects that will kill you before you get airborne.
As a tech entrepreneur, you need to be very clear about what you are doing, the market you are in, where you want to go with this, and what you wish to get out of this.
Couple this clarity with the knowledge of mistakes to avoid and you have a confident and well-prepared approach.
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