Over the last 12 months, we have seen an uptick in founders quitting on their startup pretty early in the building process. Here’s the main causes of those shutdowns:
1. Co-Founder Issues
The absolute most common problem is co-founder issues. Building a startup is stressful and hard on your relationship with your co-founder, you have to invest in that relationship for it to succeed.
2. Personal Runway
When you first start, you’ll need at least a year of personal financing. If you or one of your co-founders has less than that, and you don’t fundraise in time, the company can easily fail.
3. Waning Motivation
Most of the time, your first idea doesn’t work out, and it can be very hard on the soul when you have to switch ideas or to a different type of customer. I always suggest founders work in markets they’re passionate about, not just interested in, to reduce this problem.
Best of luck out there.
Sterling Road invests in idea stage and pre-seed B2B startups based in the US, Canada and UK.
