Three Things I Learned In Saas, Sports, Tech & Live Events
Mentor edition
We've seen hundreds of funded companies in the past decade. Here are the three most common mistakes start-up entrepreneurs make:
1) Being overly defensive. It's our baby. I get it. I was the same way. But being defensive will cost you money. Mentors don't bother giving advice to know-it-alls and the overly defensive. They just placate you and move on.
2) Advice from the wrong people. In the past decade, being an angel investor or mentor has gotten very sexy. So everyone wants to do it, actual tangible experience be damned! An easy way to pick the flame outs is to see who they're taking advice from and who they're throwing options at.
3) They partner with their friends. I did it too. It's nice and can work. But do you know what works better? Partnering with the most qualified person at that discipline. It was the #1 piece of feedback we got in our seed raise, on which we had a number of strong offers. They were all right. We were wrong.