Harj Taggar - Why Do Startups Fail

TL;DR

Startups fail because founders give up after running out of money or energy, which stems from having no users or too few users to attract investment or motivation. The root cause is not building something people want, most commonly because founders avoid talking to users.

Key insights

• Running out of money or energy is the proximate cause of startup failure, but the deeper cause is lack of users.
• The most common way to not build something people want is to not talk to users and instead build what the founder thinks they want.
• Technical founders fall into the trap of rewriting code to make it prettier, more elegant, and faster, even though users only care whether the product solves a real problem.