Mary Schmidt Marketing Troubleshooter

I love working with start-ups. Lots of passion and potential. The downside is when I have to watch a promising start-up shut down.

On more than one occasion, a CEO with whom I’ve been talking next steps will disappear- poof! – with no explanation. Then a few weeks later, I see the nasty headlines. He’s suing the founders; the founders are suing him…and they’re all fighting very publicly over very little. Seems they had drastically different ideas of “where to take the company.” Hmmm…shouldn’t they have had that discussion before hiring the guy?

OR…

The founders panic about lack of funding, so they take it out on each other. I just watched one of these fiascos. Forget cutting your nose off to spite your face. We’re talking self-decapitation. Not a pretty sight.

OR…

The board decides they’re going to run things, even if they have absolutely zero knowledge of the industry, products, or customers.

OR…

The super-techie CEO/founder gets into a snit-fit fight with the marketing VP and a potentially huge deal gets killed in the cross-fire.

OR…

One of the founders (with no experience) decides she can become a powerhouse COO by reading a book (and insists everyone reads the same book…and attend lots of “team-building” meetings in which nothing actually gets done, much less fixed. Great motivator for the pros on her staff. Not.)

OR…

The CEO focuses more on coming up with the excuse of the week for why she just can’t seem to raise the money…instead of raising the money.

OR…

The husband/wife team decide that spending every waking hour together isn’t fun. One of the top reasons for small-biz shut-downs is break-ups and divorce.

Start-ups are bumpy – even with the best ideas in the best of times. Before you dive into a new venture, you’ll need to check your baggage (including your big bad corporate ego) at the door.

Technical expertise doesn’t automatically translate into business expertise.

Business experience doesn’t automatically translate into start-up ability. Or, as one former start-up CEO, now interviewing for a real job again noted, “It’s harder than it looks.”

Related Posts:
Start-Up Suicide: Mine Is Bigger Than Yours.
Start-Up Success: People Before Plan
Start-Up Success: A Smart, Effective CEO

Tags: marketing, business development, business planning, start-ups, entrepreneurs, entrepreneur sanity check