Why Startups Fail – with Tom Eisenmann from Harvard Business School

Tom Eisenmann is a professor at Harvard Business School teaching entrepreneurship and is the author of ‘The Fail-Safe Startup’

He discusses his book and the stages a business goes through in its creation along with the potential challenges across the start-up period.

Bringing together the value proposition, the go-to-market plan, the technology and operations along with a cash flow formula are all elements that need to work together dynamically and Tom and Nick discuss all things startup and share great examples in this informative episode that is a must-listen for any entrepreneur.

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KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Finding ideas and validating the concept is the first stage for any business followed by bringing together all the resources required
• An entrepreneur is someone who pursues an idea without all the resources initially
• Resource mobilisation and exploring the opportunity go side by side
• When you have a product-market then you can start to scale
• Big company people in start-ups can interrupt the rhythm
• Entrepreneurs can be so focused on getting ahead they skip the up-front market research.
• Customer discovery before you engineer the product is a better approach
• Your success with early adopters of your product may not be replicated with mainstream customers
• Every entrepreneur needs early adopters but mainstream customers will require marketing spend.
• If you are in an industry that requires expertise you need to make sure you or someone in your team has the expertise necessary.
• Make sure you do the upfront research and be aware that the success with early adopters may not be indicative of a mainstream customer.
• One of the hardest decisions as an entrepreneur is knowing when to shut down
• If the odds of turning it around are increasingly small and you aren’t enjoying it then it’s time to shut down gracefully.
• Having failed you can learn from the experience and move forward.

BEST MOMENTS

‘For some people, an idea will just pop into their minds for those there is a search’

‘In a start-up, you have to make things happen’

‘Entrepreneurs are often like Peter Pan and don’t want to grow up’

VALUABLE RESOURCES

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The Fail-Safe Startup - Tom Eisenmann

ABOUT THE HOST

Nick Bradley is a renowned entrepreneur, investor, speaker, and business growth expert.

His background is growing and scaling Venture Capital and Private Equity backed businesses globally.

Over the last decade, he has completed 117 acquisitions and 25 business exits with a combined valuation of over $5bn dollars.His mission is to help business founders build valuable businesses and create life-changing exits so they can realise freedom, wealth, and impact.

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