Making something that users don’t want, or making something they want but not being able to sell it are probably the two most dangerous mistakes an entrepreneur could make. But what about other mistakes that might not seem so obvious while being totally obsessed with your startup idea? Mistakes like delaying of a product launch, trying to develop the perfect product, or focusing on a small, obscure niche in the hope of avoiding competition? Let’s see what successful entrepreneurs such as Neil Patel, Paul Graham, or Chris Dixon are saying about this.

1. Delaying your product launch: Procrastination is definitely one of the top reasons that cause a startup failure. Unfortunately this is a very common mistake. Many startup teams try to delay the product launch because “something else needs to happen first”. In his blog post, “18 Mistakes That Kill Startups” Graham says: “It’s intrinsic to the medium; software is always 85% done. It takes an effort of will to push through this and get something released to users. Startups make all kinds of excuses for delaying their launch. Most are equivalent to the ones people use for procrastinating in everyday life. There’s something that needs to happen first. Maybe. But if the software were 100% finished and ready to launch at the push of a button, would they still be waiting?” Furthermore, while startups are delaying, a lot of people, especially the press and the investors, are anticipating the launch. Thus, the tension gets even bigger.

What to do? – Patel recommends: “Even if you and your team think that six months or nine months or whatever time you’ve promised seems like a long time…don’t waste it! Get to work right away as soon as you can. It’s much better to finish before your deadline than it is to finish after. I think we are all probably guilty of wasting time when we think we have a lot of it”.

2. Doing more than you are capable of: Being a single Founder means you are responsible for everything. Starting a business could be hard for one person. Even if you could do all the work yourself, you still need others to share ideas, to brainstorm with, to consult with, to see things from other perspective, and to cheer you up when things go wrong. Being the only one dealing with current problems and the future of the business which remains up in the air could be tough. Moreover, it could easily make your startup fail.

What to do? - “The trick here is knowing when your business has grown to the point you can take on added staff. When in doubt, take on the cost of an extra employee or two and get back to running your business instead of running yourself into the ground”, advises DigitalBusStop.com.

3. Perfectionism: Let us first explain what we mean by this. While it is great to make great products, trying to make them perfect can kill that greatness. Moreover this is also related to procrastination. Why? Very often entrepreneurs delay launching because they need just a little bit more time to make a product perfect, meaning to re-work it, to add or change some features, colors, fonts, parts, even small dots that no one can notice but them… Now it might sound too obvious mistake to talk about, but think how many times you delayed something just because you needed more time to make it better? And guess what: perfection is pretty relative and depends on individual perception. In his blog post, “6 Mistakes That Will Kill Your Product Launch” Patel gives great explanation: “Perfectionism is simply re-working a product over and over, trying to fix every single bug and erase every single bad design element so the customer gets a perfect product. Unfortunately, it’s very expensive to operate that way because your idea may not be the customer’s idea of perfection, leading to a product that users don’t want.You don’t probably have deep enough pockets to make that mistake even once”.

What to do? - Patel advises to get a product to 33% launch-ready before releasing. The 33% or the one third concept is recommended by Eric Ries too, as part of his Lean Startup Theory. Thus, Patel says that you need to do 2 things:

• “Define exactly what 33% is – Do you and your team have a clearly defined picture of 33%? Did you work this into your business plan? Do your investors understand that picture, too?

• Who’s responsible for identifying 33%? – An important aspect to a good team is someone who can hold you accountable. If you have a partner, he or she should hold you accountable. If you are a single founder, then you should appoint someone, maybe a mentor, to hold you accountable. If you don’t have this person, you can fall into perfectionism”.

4. Marginal Niche: In the hope of avoiding competition, very often entrepreneurs get stuck with ideas that are simply not viable businesses. Trying to be unique, they target so small, so obscure niches that are not a business opportunity at all. This is what Graham points out as a common problem among groups that apply to Y Combinator. He says:” If you watch little kids playing sports, you notice that below a certain age they’re afraid of the ball. When the ball comes near them their instinct is to avoid it. I didn’t make a lot of catches as an eight year old outfielder, because whenever a fly ball came my way, I used to close my eyes and hold my glove up more for protection than in the hope of catching it. Choosing a marginal project is the startup equivalent of my eight year old strategy for dealing with fly balls”. In other words he is saying that great things have competition. Thus you cannot avoid the battle unless you avoid great ideas and focus on something irrelevant.

What to do? - Graham believes that trying to avoid big problems or big competition is mostly unconscious. Moreover he claims that because of that unconsciousness your mind won’t let you think of great and grand ideas. “So the solution may be to think about ideas without involving yourself. What would be a great idea for someone else to do as a startup?”, recommends Graham.

5. Choosing investors based on wrong criteria: Many times entrepreneurs, especially the ones who can already feel the “hotness” of their startup, are looking for “celebrity” investors who will make a huge buzz in the tech world. Dixon has a great post on this, “How To Select Your Angel Investors”. He says: “Picking celebrity angels might help you get a little more buzz when you announce the financing and a few SUL tweets, but that’s about it.  A startup is a long trip — what you should care about is whether, through the ups and downs and after the buzz dies down, the investors will actually roll up their sleeves and help you. Ron Conway is a celebrity (in the startup world) and is one of the hardest working investors I know. But there are other celebrity investors who I’m a co-investor with in a few companies who literally don’t respond to the founder’s emails”.  

What to do? - Dixon recommends picking a varied group of people. The ones that should come at first place are investors who you trust, investors who would be engaged and will be by your side in good and bad times. Moreover, you should search for diversified qualities. He says: “If you want a few celebrities to create some buzz, fine.  You should also pick some people who are connectors – who can introduce you to key people when you need it (varying connectors by geography and industry can also be helpful).  Also very important are active entrepreneurs who can (and will) give you practical advice about hiring, product development, financing etc”.

To sum up: We are sure there are many other factors that could lead to startup failure. These were 5 mistakes shared by great entrepreneurs, arguing that sometimes the most obvious mistakes are not so obvious when you get obsessed with your idea of making it big. If you have any comment on this, or any other mistake you have made in your startup, please feel free to share it.