The Patterns of Startup Failure

I’ve become a student of startup failure.

That’s the kind of thing that happens when you come up empty after pouring years of your life into a startup you were sure the market needed.

It’s a curiosity that only grows when your story ends with a boom, as mine did, complete with corporate bankruptcy and legal catastrophe. In the immediate aftermath, I was able to describe what happened, but it took years to begin to understand why.

I made thousands of poor choices along the way, each with its own backstory, rationale, and justification. Mine is a complex story of personal shortcomings, poor organizational behavior, and systemic toxicity, all of which worked to quietly feed each other.

I’ve found that’s common.

It’s the story at Theranos. It’s the story with Sam Bankman-Fried. It’s the story with any of these fraud stories you hear about, whether they’re huge multi-billion dollar ones, mine, or things even smaller. Those elements make up six universal contributors to every failed startup.

My hope is that by naming and highlighting these patterns, we can reduce the blast radius of startup failure.

Startups will always fail but clear eyes can make it hurt less: less lasting damage, less drama, and more growth on the other side.