Common Mistakes First-time Entrepreneurs Make

We underestimated the difficulty of managing a team and undervalued the skills of general management, process, and strategy. Siqi Chen
We used our limited resources as a startup to attack markets we didn’t understand instead of focusing on our core competencies, which were fairly unique in the market.
It starts with the co-founder: not having one, having the wrong one, improperly dividing responsibilities, or giving too many people the title “co-founder”. AdamRifkin
Not realizing that one of the best ways to succeed is to fail fast — sometimes it’s difficult for first time entrepreneurs to launch product, and just get feedback from their target audience. Suzanne Xie
Never outsource anything important. Ever. There’s no such thing as a brain transplant. You can get a new heart, a new arm– mechanical things– but you can’t replace the central nervous system. Greg Tapper
First-time entrepreneurs often fail to realize that every second of every day costs money. Whether it is rent, salaries, overhead, utilities, or whatever, cash is constantly going out the door, and if you cannot bring cash in (through sales or financing), then you will eventually run out of cash and the game is over. George Kellerman
Seeking perfection instead of revenue. Preferring ideation over iteration. Spending all day glued to your screen without stepping back to review the big picture every now and again. Grinding without realising that you are on the wrong path. Believing your own hype. Sam Birmingham
To quickly summarize our biggest mistake — it was not having a techie co-founder when our vision was to build a very feature-rich internet publishing platform. This caused us to go down some blind alleys, lose time, and spend money unnecessarily. Evan Rudowski
Obsessing over the competition. Be aware of who they are and stay abreast of what they’re up to, but overly focusing on what they’re doing and building takes your eyes off the prize. Matt Hendrick
The biggest mistake I made 1 year ago, was recruiting people that I personally liked instead of recruiting people that I really needed. A business is not a social club. Dont recruit people that are your close friends or just because you like them. Jimenez Weerden
Picking the wrong partners. Lack of execution brought on by analysis/paralysis. Unrealistic business model. Trying to build the perfect product right out the door. Lack of competitive analysis. Winston Klein