You know…the kind where someone burns through $4M of friends and family money, ends up selling the office chairs on Craigslist, and emerges six years later with a podcast called “Fail Forward.”

Seriously though, only a handful of experiences in life are as painful as watching your company go to zero after years of sacrifice, hard work and grandpa’s $100,000 invested in you. I wouldn't wish that upon my worst enemy... well most of them.

But here’s the truth: most startups don’t go down in flames. They just slowly bleed out from a thousand tiny cuts—unexamined assumptions, market blind spots, and that one fatal trait most founders have in abundance: delusion.

Let’s start with the biggest myth: that a brilliant idea + hard work = success.

Wrong.

A good idea in a bad market is like throwing a pool party during a drought. No one’s coming. Not because your party sucks, but because they don’t have water. Think: Will Ferrell‘s plan to go streaking in the movie “Old School”. You’re on your own pal!

If your customer doesn’t feel urgency, doesn’t have a budget, or doesn’t want to talk to you without a bureaucratic support ticket—you’re not solving a problem, you’re role-playing as a founder.

And that brings us to…

 

The Trinity of Startup Death:

1.   Too Small – Your market is six people and a golden retriever.
2.  Too Cheap – Your customers love it but won’t pay more than a venti latte.
3.  Too Hard to Reach – Selling feels like cold-calling CEOs during their colonoscopy.

What kills startups isn’t lack of hustle or passion. It’s building something beautiful that no one needs badly enough to pay for.

So before you write a single line of code or turn a screw, ask yourself: “Who’s bleeding?”

And then ask: “Do they have a credit card?”

Because unless your product solves a burning problem for someone who’s ready to pay now—not “eventually,” not “if my department approves it”—you’re not a founder. You’re a future cautionary tale.

Bottom line? Startups don’t die from failure. They die from not matching those two keys up. Otherwise, it's just fantasy.

What to Do (If You Want to Stay Alive)

Solve Pain, Not Potential
Build for someone who’s bleeding now. Not someone who might have a paper cut next year.

Talk to Real People, Not Personas
Validate with real conversations — not spreadsheets, surveys, or ChatGPT.

Sell Before You Build
If you can’t get a verbal yes and credit card number, you don’t have product-market fit... you have founder-market fantasy.

Validate the Buyer, Not Just the User
Users love free. Buyers love value. Know the difference.

Nail One Use Case
Be great at one painful problem. Add features later. Solve deeply, not widely.

Charge Something Early
$10. $50. Doesn’t matter. If they won’t pay, they won’t stay.

Shorten the Distance to Revenue
If it takes 90 days to get a deal signed, you're not a startup — you're a procurement test.

Track Retention Like a Hawk
Your CAC means nothing if your customers ghost you after month one.

Qualify, Then Pitch
Don’t chase every whale. Filter for those who need, have urgency, and can pay.

Kill Weak Offers Fast
Mediocre traction is a death sentence. Pivot hard, or bury it properly.

What NOT to Do (Unless You Want a Eulogy)

Don’t Obsess Over Market Size
A $50B market means nothing if no one cares about your solution.

Don’t Assume Free Users = Future Buyers
They’re freeloading, not warming up. Cold wallets stay cold.

Don’t Waste Months on the “Perfect” MVP
Get dirty, launch fast. Ugly + useful beats pretty + pointless.

Don’t Sell to People Who Need Approval
Middle managers make nice demos, not decisions.

Don’t Ignore Retention
It’s not growth if 90% of your customers vanish like your runway.

Don’t Write Your Own Press Clippings
Validation is revenue, not retweets.

Don’t Chase VCs for Validation
They follow traction. Be worth chasing, not pitching.

Don’t Fake CAC Math
Ad spend / sign-ups ≠ CAC. Do it right or don’t quote it.

Don’t Confuse Activity with Progress
Lots of calls, zero closes? That’s just startup cardio. Observe. Learn. Pivot.

Don’t Marry Your First Idea
Most of your assumptions are wrong. Kill fast, learn faster.

Summary

There's lots to pack, but the bottom line is, if you haven't clearly defined what the problem is, and who owns that problem (a problem worth solving, and a market that will pay for it), you're not being honest with yourself or any other stakeholder in your company.

You crack that nut, and you may just have something.

OK, that's enough salt for the day.

Thanks for reading - and do well.