Guy Kawasaki’s 10 Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make

Mistakes startup entrepreneurs make and what you should do:

1. Multiple a big market by 1%. – Build up. $10k visitors, 10% conv, 1,000 sales, 10 sales at $100 total.
2. Scale too fast. – eat what you kill. Sell and backfill.
3. Form partnerships. – “Partnerships are BS. You say them because you can’t say revenue.” Focus on sales. If you have a partnership, say how much revenue it has generated to.
4. Focus on the pitch. – Focus on prototype
5. Use too many slides – 10;20;30 – tell them what it is in 30 seconds.
6. Make serial progress. – make parallel process. You have to do all things at once.
7. Try to retain control – Not democratic based on 51/49. Don’t focus on dilution. As soon as you take outside capital you are working for the investor. Make a bigger pie.
8. Use patents for defensibility – do a patent but don’t reply on it or pitch it. Use success for defence.
9. Hire in your image. Hire to complement. One person to make it, one person to sell it.
10. Befriend your investors. Exceed your expectations. Sandbag, but enough to be interesting.

If you haven’t read his book, Art of the Start. Good fodder.