As the year comes to a close, the season ends and with Jack moving on from EAH in 2024, we felt now was the perfect time to bring you a very special episode... one that has been in the works and on our minds for months.

We look to answer the million-dollar question, 'Why do startups fail?'

Over the past 3.5 years running Early Adopters Hub, we have worked with more than 35+ startups, and evaluated over 200 founders... And over this time the key reasons, beliefs, and strategies that lead founders into failure have become more and more clear.

Prepare to have many of your startup beliefs challenged, as we (Yohan in particular) shed light on the reality of startup life, the complexity involved, and how most founders underestimate the challenge ahead!

This episode is all about 'Why Startups Fail', but we made it because we want to see more startups to go in eyes-wide open, and hopefully, succeed!

Jon joined us for one of the most open and honest discussions we have ever had with a startup founder.

Having built his product alongside the right early users, seeing initial signs of product-market fit and growing through word of mouth... something then went wrong.

We went deep with Jon on the steps that took Hindsight from an app with so much potential, to another member of the startup graveyard... and what he would do differently next time!

Alastair already runs an extremely successful firm, Flinder, focused on fast-growing businesses. Being at the cutting edge meant running into constant roadblocks with existing tools, and so it was inevitable they'd need to build their own tech solution.

As a non-technical founder, Alastair opened up on the challenges and mistakes he made building his first tech product; overestimating the speed at which things can be done, and underestimating the help they would need.

Having recently made the hard decision to turn down money, and walk away from his startup for personal reasons, Brett opened up on the startup journey he has been on over the past couple of years - from identifying the problem to pivoting the product, and now shutting it down.

Toward the end of the conversation we explore together what appears to be a 'founder paradox' - the need for startup founders to be extremely confident, yet humble at the same time... A challenge every founder needs to be aware of.

Having validated their own frustrations with other accountants, Melissa and the Fuse team knew their was an opportunity and took the chance.

Melissa speaks candidly about their slow, steady and conservative approach in the early days which allowed them to remain in control and avoid the need for external funding.

She explains how they've built a team and culture that's enabled scale and growth, in a competitive market, including their latest expansion into the UK.

As an accountant himself, Liam spent hours looking for a solution to his problem before realising that there was a huge gap in the market.

Liam opens up on his relatively fresh journey as a startup founder. He speaks about his desire to build something others will love, the discomfort of putting himself out there to hear brutally honest feedback, and his plan to focus on profitability and sustainability - rather than raising money.

Meryl who is best known for her e-commerce bookkeeping and accounting company, Bean Ninjas, has spent a number of years building tech startups too!

Her first, a solution looking for a problem that crashed and burned relatively quickly.

But her second was a success!

Meryl explains how she got it right the second time round, ensuring the startup was built on a strong problem foundation in an area she knew extremely well.

As an accountant himself, Gavin saw a problem to be solved and jumped at the opportunity, hiring an agency to begin developing it. Within weeks he realised he was burning cash, with no confidence he was building the right thing.

Fast-forward and Gavin is taking a structured approach to product-market fit, building his tech alongside future users - testing himself and his assumptions every step of the way.

Gavin manages to remain confident, yet humble, an important combination for any founder.

Such a fun conversation with Joyce who is killing it in the accounting tech world right now, and being extremely open and transparent with her build in public approach - which accountants love!

She delves deeper into the differences between product and services companies, what it means to focus on value density (hint, its better to do one thing 90% than nine things to 10%), the importance of finding a technical co-founder, and what to avoid when selling to accountants!

Guy returns to provide his joint perspective as both a founder who has raised a tonne of money, and an angel investor who has backed many accounting tech startups.

It was a deep conversation covering everything early-stage founders need to know about pitching, communicating and aligning objectives with investors. If you're considering raising money, this episode is a must-listen!