Kathryn Minshew: 7 Classic Startup Founder Mistakes (And How to Avoid Them)

About this presentation
Daily Muse co-founder and startup advisor Kathryn Minshew has started several startups and has the battle scars to prove it. In this 99U talk, Minshew shares common mistakes made by startup founders, and reveals the remedies to each. Chief among them? The “Gollum Syndrome” where founders treat their companies as “their precious.” Just launch and iterate, says Minshew, because “an ugly baby is better than no baby at all.”
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About Kathryn Minshew
Kathryn Minshew is the CEO & Founder of TheMuse.com, a career platform and job discovery tool helping 1 million people every month answer the question, “What do I want to do with my life (and how do I get there)?”
Kathryn has spoken at MIT and Harvard, appeared on The TODAY Show and Fox, and contributes on career and entrepreneurship topics to the Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review. Before founding The Muse, Kathryn worked on vaccine introduction in Rwanda and Malawi with the Clinton Health Access Initiative and was previously at the management consultancy McKinsey & Company. Follow her on Twitter @KMin.
About 99U
The 99U delivers the action-oriented education that you didn't get in school, highlighting real-world best practices for making ideas happen.

[@AniishAu]

1. product market fit: strive to obtain unprejudiced, outside appraisal/ feedback/ interaction. 2. take great care to select appropriate founders with appropriate skills, vision, compatibility, and make roles, responsibilities very clear. Walk through worst case scenarios and ensure agreement. 3. "Just fucking launch already": implement your idea (MVP) ASAP to determine viability/response and then iterate. Get it to the bare bones, or the money will run out before you can implement. 4. Focus on impact not productivity: don't get bogged down in details, remind yourself your key metrics and dedicate time to activities that nudge these. 5. Build public interest from day 1, don't wait 'til your product is "ready". 6. Team-building: have faith that people will work for you even with a pay cut, if they are the right fit. They will stay too. So be creative to find the right fit, and then be transparent and thorough to double check. 7. Don't succumb to any negativity around your company or projected chances or the market generally. Hold true to your experience and your customer feedback.

[@toordog1753]

Any good businessman can use any product to be successful, it's an algorithm....

[@stepbeast]

Excellent job man

[@ABetterJones]

Yes! I love the way you lay this out. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good (or even just the okay) you'll be way better off getting it out there and learning than sitting around tinkering..

[@DannyBoy443]

I love EVERYTHING she is saying. But I love her energy and attitude even more. And THAT is the most important.

[@shchehliuk124]

1:35 Idea vs Product 2:46 Any founders with skill will do 4:07 done vs perfect 6:32 productive vs Impactful (8:03) 8:33 create velocity 12:36 team building 16:00 Don't believe in the hype

[@holycrapfreakinsweet]

This just made my eager-for-a-startup mind take a step back and made me ask myself "Why?" and "What for"? Really helpful... thanks

[@susanmcvea]

You explained the basic business mistakes really well! Thank you

[@adamlee9347]

1. Idea v. Product-market fit 2. Any founders with skill will do 3. Perfect v. Done 4. Productive v. Impactful 5. Create Velocity: customers don't just come 6. Team-building 7. Believe in the hype

[@AvantGrade]

*Don't* Believe in the hype

[@Ideaman47]

Thanks for saving me 20min

[@kwhandy]

THANKYOU YOU TIME SAVER

[@KresnaPermana]

The answers always nicewhen you asking whether good or not about the idea to your family and your best friend

[@Mistr_Insightful]

So many great take always from this video!! Thank you!!!

[@bosna737]

Awesome video! 😁 Will send this to me little cousin, to try to get into her head that she can become an entrepreneur too! 😁

[@yousefelfarahaty3621]

Thankyou for sharing such helpful stuff!

[@rohamtavakkoli7562]

I think taking entrepreneurship advice from people that come from money should be done with a grain of salt

[@ABetterJones]

I totally agree. Yes, they can have some good insight, but their path to success is inevitably going to be different (easier) than it is for the rest of us.

[@susanmcvea]

Great point. People who come from money don't have the same business struggles, and therefore cannot relate to alot of the problems most business owners go through

[@shankarsammy23]

Thanks for sharing this amazing video ... Really very helpful ...

[@alcifrerdewich2323]

advice... do whatever mockup... product not very advanced, get a good PR, send the news to techcrunch. relax (you are seed founded and have enthusiastic customer driven by mass media) and now create a good product

[@brillianceplayground]

Very informative, can't thank you enough!

[@ugochukwujosephokafor6336]

I love every bit of this video!

[@shannasansom]

Excellent Advice!!! thank you for sharing!

[@yellowdough2001]

@6:40 - productive vs impactful! love that - K.M.! what are the KEY METRICS are?

[@SHIRZAD_OFFICIAL]

great wish you all the best. I subscribed your channel.

[@davidallsopp4030]

Great video!

[@MagnusAnand]

Great advise!

[@pithikoulis]

It's kind of ironical So many entrepreneurs make business for people to find jobs lol

[@marcialabrahantes3369]

Sell the dream ~

[@Blipblopmarketing]

Entrepreneurs is all about Finding a right solution for any given problems no matter what n where

[@souryabanik]

It is yes. But there are two kinds of people. One who make the rules and one who follow them. Both are required to keep the machine and society running. Though, the rule makers get more rewards than the followers. Maybe rightly so.

[@Scatteril]

Till today. No one got it right. There is a need still.

[@japango1]

Katie Holmes is gonna play her in the movie.

[@kimberlychao9566]

Nice video

[@Macfanize]

Awesome talk!

[@codewithkam]

Never considered a pay cut for the founder's idea, never will.... let's be realistic, hire the best you can, that's all you got. BTW, you don't always need the best talent. People with massive level of expertise many times just start thinking about turning Vegan, the essence of Yoga for humanity, the fun they've missed in their early 20s, or simply wanna start their own business (exaggerated a bit but overall it's true). Trust the people who have the potential, are cheaper, love to get the experience and want to prove they are good so they can move to a better company and along the way they help you build your product, later you can hire a $1000/day developer who's not gonna work that much for you btw.

[@JeffPittman]

Just Fucking Launch Already - JFLA. LOVE IT

[@Samborondon11]

Amazing

[@rice_lord]

Do you accept boyfriend application?

[@mms9smm]

Nice one👍

[@arifulislamleeton]

Thank you

[@AjeyRajput]

Isn't this video similar to 7 Day Startup

[@MiroslavMakaveli]

Is this a free seminar or payment?

[@arifulislamleeton]

Hi I'm Ariful Islam leeton im software engineer and co founders open A I And co pilot Microsoft 365 and investors

[@tsegezeabthatsmyname54]

gold idea

[@rudhisundar]

Thank you for the insight, you are beautiful too!!

[@davidallsopp4030]

correct

[@NoFossilsNoEvolution]

😶😚😚😚Great info...

[@4suc6]

These are rather trade offs for startups

[@Crowstudio]

Enough... Everyone claims to know something. There is no formula for this. Time, location, and strategy align at some point. Keep pounding, that’s all. If you think your business success is when you rise to a podium and you get a picture makes you look like a Mártir your are dead wrong. Focus dudes.

[@johnlarsen5943]

A+ comment. Everyone acts like they are a guru just because they put in some hours and most importantly, got lucky.

[@virtuous8]

luck and timing. hard work vs smart work

[@bedrockaffect1273]

#Innovation

[@unrinconlatino]

I love you!

[@ArturVegas]

???????

[@herisutanto4829]

she's beautiful

[@cmdaltctr]

This is a good talk, she is very enthusiastic. But I think she speaks a bit too fast.

[@nebojsabrnjasevic]

Company culture -.-

[@kimberlychao9566]

Nice Talking

[@jcobbs4523]

Top mistakes for public speakers: 1) umm 2) uhh 3) lip smacking

[@erwinmoreno23]

She's an entrepreneur get over it

[@noudialp]

@@erwinmoreno23 Very well put ;)

[@franzinimanuel3911]

She‘s talking like a waterfall, lease more quality than quantity. She should focus on the audience rather on all the words she can express. But all in all an illuminating person, a person to lissen to.

[@d7eemo270]

I want to startup A relationship with u :D

[@virtuous8]

silly con valley

[@mailaditi]

You need to slow down girl

[@great567]

I honestly think UX learnt from user behavior is not valuable. If you can't understand how to design a decent platform by now, you quit the internet. Internet companies make terrible mistakes, including Google the Mother of all data and Apple now too.

[@cepheaus]

why do you say that?

[@great567]

Look at LinkedIn or Microsoft. Does it look good?

[@aimanrahman2971]

What a joke

[@boot-strapper]

Nope, I work for money. Work to live, I dont live to work, lady.

[@CaptainPlanet007]

She’s so aggressive but I wonder how she...

[@maxhooker4186]

Captain Planet ...keep your pants up, cowboy.

[@MagnusAnand]

You’re an idiot

[@wiepcorbier]

Again, many times 'you know'. Getting sick of it.

[@alexchiong8437]

she's hotter than the sun.

[@user-fu6it4cm7x]

She is trying so hard to be funny. But that only makes me cringe. I sense lots of self doubt in her, backed by feminism steroids to keep her going.