They run out of money. They are toooptimistic about when their product is going to be accepted by the market

Founders don’t have complete faith ineach other. They fight instead of delegating, trusting and verifying.

CEO hires weak team members. StrongCEOs sometimes try to carry everyone with them.

They want to do too much. A successful startup finds anarrow niche that they can dominate and then expands.

They go after too small a market.

They don’t charge enough from theircustomers to survive. They often think their mentors/investors are theircustomers, and think that a nice sale is all they need.

They hire too many people up front.

They get unlucky. Competitors, newtechnologies, et al.

They don’t work hard enough or fastenough or smart enough. All those little decisions add up to an outcome.

They don’t take enough risks. Somestartups think they should operate like big firms. They can never beat MS orGoogle at their own game. They should get creative and do things differently,even at the risk of embarrassment.