When startups go under, outside observers rush to catalogue the fallout. Did anyone use the product? Did they run out of money? Was the CEO too inexperienced?
While many entrepreneurs worry about marketing, revenue, and employees, none of those were top 10 reasons Expert System identified as critical reasons for failure. Their methodology: what words were mentioned in the same sentence as “fail” or “failure.” While not foolproof, this led to an interesting result: “product” was mentioned 15 times in those sentences, compared to employee, marketing, or revenue at only 2 mentions each. This suggests that product is the key cause for many startup problems.
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Then again, many startups may be too focused on the product, and not enough on examining the needs of the end user or the necessary steps to take it to market. While product was mentioned 454 times in total, customers (202) and market (176) came in far lower.
Curated from “Here's Why Startups Fail [Forbes]“