11 Worst Founder Traits That Lead To Failure
Being in venture for over a decade I have met some truly incredible founders.
I’ve also met and worked with founders who had BAD TRAITS, traits that led to FAILURE.
Here are the worst ones I observed.
1. DISHONESTY
It comes in many shapes and forms:
Downright lying and cooking the books -- obviously absolutely terrible
Lack of intellectual honesty - founder knows things aren't going well but won't admit it
"White lies" eventually turn into full lies
2. SOMETHING IS ALWAYS OFF
Sometimes "white lies" feel like the founder is always trying to cheat somehow.
Someone who is not a a straight shooter.
Not treating everyone the same, always trying to gain some kind of advantage even when it doesn't matter.
3. WON'T SHARE THE PIE
This one is a next deadly sin that is more prevalent in solo founders - they don't want to share fairly with others on the team.
Won't give a technical co-founder more than a few points.
Would not reward outstanding employees with equity.
4. CAN'T BUILD A TEAM
Typically because they WON'T SHARE THE PIE but sometimes for other reasons
Can't delegate to others, constantly micromanaging people.
Not being able to build the team is game over -- you can't build a business / get to an outcome.
5. GOING TOO SLOWLY
Fear of failure, analysis paralysis, inability to delegate, life style entrepreneurship and also...
Lack of product chops, technical co-founders, lack of FMF or GTM and also...
Inability to Sell / not being Commercial.
All lead to being too slow and ultimately a failure.
6. TOO FOCUSED ON POSITIONING, PR, AND VC INSTEAD OF BUILDING THE ACTUAL BUSINESS
Some founders are really good at PR
Some constantly obsess over Fundraising
Some spend too much time on Competition
As as a result -- they miss what matters -- building a business!
7. TOO STUBBORN / NOT SELF-AWARE
Passion is a double edged sword.
If the founder is blinded to facts and data, if the founder doesn't take feedback, they will fail.
Being stubborn and right is magical. Being stubborn and wrong is deadly.
8. NOT HUNGRY ENOUGH
Startups are irrational, because most fail, because you can just get a job, because you don't have to live through 1 million ups and downs.
To win, you need to want it really really really badly.
Some founders are just not hungry enough to win.
9. NOT COMMERCIAL
This is common with the founders from academia, bottom up engineers who love building for the sake of building.
Some founders just don't know how to sell.
Some learn, but some remain terrible at being commercial and that leads to failure.
10. CAN'T FOCUS / NO CLARITY
This type of founder keeps trying different things but not the ones that matter or lead to a win.
They keep building the sides and the rooms but never get to the complete house.
Their MVPs are not viable enough to win.
11. NOT MANAGING THE BURN
Some founders are in denial of how bad their burn is relative to their revenue. They keep spending and spending.
They are afraid and unwilling to cut the burn and ultimately run out of money.
Startups are really hard.
SUMMARY
The most important thing is to be 100% HONEST and SHARE THE PIE so you can BUILD AN AMAZING PRODUCT, then SELL IT and WIN BIG!
Take this to heart.
Wishing all of you founders out there an EPIC VICTORY and ALWAYS ROOTING FOR YOU!
