Top 10 Signs Your Startup Might Be On The Rocks

Posted by Chris Tingom on July 22, 2007 at 10:29 pm.

1. You only work on your startup on weekends
And weekends are when you are burned out from a 65 hour work week.

2. Your co-founders take the weekends off
And you work all alone.

3. Your startup has been a concept for “years”
You are either a person ahead of your time, or slow.

4. Only one person really works on it, the rest talk about it and suggest changes
Who’s product is this anyways?

5. Your developers question whether it can even be built
“I don’t think it’s possible” doesn’t work in startup land.

6. Your co-founders aren’t passionate about your product
When your co-founders want to work on something else, it can’t be good.

7. Your co-founders just want to copy an already existing product
Where’s the innovation in that?

8. Your co-founders are content with their current income level
If your co-founders are content with what they earn, what is driving them?

9. Your product has no revenue model
What are you crazy?

10. You can’t pronounce your company name
Neither can your customers.

Bonus: You just outsourced development to a foreign country.

Suggest your own reasons in the comments…

Fortune Cookie

8 Comments ( RSS comment feed  |  TrackBack URI ) »

  • Comment posted by Brody on July 23, 2007 at 8:35 am
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  • Number three applies to several ideas I’ve had over the years. I never take the initiative to get something started.

  • Comment posted by mark on July 25, 2007 at 7:40 am
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  • Good post Chris, oh I got plenty of ideas, but no time…

  • Comment posted by Joshua on July 25, 2007 at 7:54 am
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  • 11. You’ve removed vowels from your brand name to look cool.

  • Comment posted by Phil Renaud on July 25, 2007 at 7:18 pm
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  • nice :)

    and also: I moved to Scottsdale to take a job doing U.I. design. It’s a good scene.

  • Comment posted by Chris Tingom on July 25, 2007 at 8:57 pm
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  • Cool.

  • Comment posted by Ben on January 17, 2008 at 7:23 pm
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  • In regards to #8: If you’re being driven by money, that’s just as bad.

  • Comment posted by Chris Tingom on January 17, 2008 at 8:04 pm
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  • Good point Ben. Thanks for visiting.

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