What are some common reasons for the failure of startups?

Quora asked me to reply to this question: 

What are some common reasons for the failure of startups? Is it primarily due to poor leadership or a lack of vision? 

I don't think it has much to do with either of those problems. Vision and leadership are both secondary to hard work and experimentation. 

So here is my response to the question...

There are many possible answers to this. I will share three of my favorites:

* Failure to pivot: Every startup is a gamble. It’s an assumption that your business model will find the best product-market fit. But most startup assumptions are flawed – which means you have to test your assumptions as quickly as possible, adjust your offering as best you can, and then test again. This process can take a long time. It’s like threading a needle. There are no shortcuts.

Sometimes founders can be arrogant, and think they know best. Others are willing to pivot once, or twice, but then lose focus and never find the right product-positioning-pricing-distribution model. You must recognize that the market is always right – and you never stop testing.

* Insufficient funds: Startups always take longer and cost more than you expect. Smart entrepreneurs calculate realistic budgets based on everything taking twice as long as they predict, and costing twice as much. Your business will fail if you run out of funds before you find that elusive product-market fit.

* One-channel marketing: Some founders think that if they put up a storefont sign, customers will come. Others think if they can just land that interview with Wired or a review in The New York Times, everything will go great. But there is no magic bullet in business.

You need awesome, mouth-watering marketing messages in multiple channels: storefront, web, search, social media, local radio, trade press, etc. You may think you have the perfect offer, and the right media channel – but you will never know until you test different messages and multiple media.

Starting a successful business is hard. There are many more ways to fail than succeed. 

Patience and preparation separate the winners from the losers.