When meeting with entrepreneurs and evaluating the market size for the opportunity they are pursuing, I often see the same mistake: a confusion of the accessible market with the potential market. How many times have I come across this lie (as well as others….): “our market will give us $50,000 million in 2017 – look […]
What Mistakes Are Killing Your Startup? #3 Marginal Niche
What is a niche product? It is a good or service with features that appeal to a particular market subgroup. A typical niche product can be easily distinguished from other products, and it will also be produced and sold for specialized uses within its corresponding niche market. It sounds great…so why is that an issue […]
What Mistakes Are Killing Your Startup? #2 Bad Location
Starting a company in Abdijan (a yearly destination of mine) is a far cry from doing so in Barcelona (my home city) or San Francisco. It sounds obvious…and it is! I’ve identified four major reasons for this: Talent Talent is unevenly distributed geographically. There are clusters of entrepreneurship and innovation that are more attractive than […]
What Mistakes Are Killing Your Startup? #1 Single Founder
Recently, I posted the infographic below on my LinkedIn profile. It generated thousands of shares and hundreds of comments, which proves there is an interested community who are actively seeking information on the topic. To follow-on on this, my next few posts will go into more detail why those 18 mistakes are so deadly for startups. Mistake #1: Single […]
Entrepreneurs on Hostile Ground: 5 Lessons from Eastern Europe
The fall of the Berlin Wall, which happened exactly 25 years ago, marked the dawn of a very complex transitional period for Eastern European countries. Yet even amid the tough environment, some entrepreneurs were able to overcome all the barriers and start businesses, some of which have since become thriving multinationals. At that time, entrepreneurs […]