The biggest start-up mistake.

Start-ups fail for lots of reasons, but the number one reason is most surprising.

Forbes says that 95% of start-ups will fail—certainly entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart. As Elon Musk said, “It’s like staring into the abyss while chewing glass.” So why do so many start-ups fail?

I’ve worked with thousands of start-ups and have invested in dozens of good ideas. I always try to mitigate risk for both myself and my clients by ensuring the idea is valid, the business model is sound, the logistics are realistic and the team is competent. But the single biggest reason start-ups fail most often is because the market doesn’t need their product! Think about that for a moment. That tells you that a founder(s) is so caught up in confirmation bias that they have either failed to get true market feedback on the product, or worse, they have ignored it.

Every start-up and company launching a new product, needs to validate their idea in the market as early and often as possible. Kickstarter is brilliant for several reasons, but mostly because it validates the idea, price and market with little investment up front.

Validate your idea. Validate price. Validate your market. It’s the fast road to success.

Steve Brazell, Founder of Hitman Inc., Competition Removal®