Startup Anti-Patterns

An anti-pattern is a commonly used process, structure, or pattern of action that, despite initially appearing to be an appropriate and effective response to a problem, has more bad consequences than good ones.

Simeon Simeonov first wrote an introduction to the value of startup anti-patterns back in 2013. To sum it up, it’s hard to pinpoint the exact set of reasons startups succeed, but experienced entrepreneurs and investors have a good sense of what drives startups’ failures.

Startup anti-patterns are all about that — patterns that increase the risks associated with startups (hey, it’s a risky business to begin with). Pursuing an anti-pattern doesn’t mean that your company will die tomorrow or in the next year, but each anti-pattern adds-up and could lead to clouding your focus and hampering your ability to execute.

Together with Itamar Novick from Recursive Ventures, Simeon Simeonov is bringing the Startup anti-pattern series to life. Stay tuned for more in this series as we work through each anti-pattern with tangible examples from our experiences as founders and investors in 100+ startups, and the experiences of guest founders from our portfolio.

Startup Anti-Patterns full list (work in progress…)

Elephant hunting

Ignorance

Platform risk

If you build it, they will come

Bad revenue

Chasing the competition

Chasing Blue Oceans

Analysis paralysis

(Founder) Arrogance

Boiling the ocean

Bridge to nowhere

Design by committee

Confirmation bias

Bleeding on the edge

Attribution risk

Changing strategy instead of execution

Confusing activity with results

Consulting to product

Death by pivot

Deathmarch

Delayed scaling

Demand generation

Designing for investors

Drag

Escalation of commitment

Escape to the familiar

Escapism

Featuritis

Forward thinking

Founderitis

Groupthink

Hail Mary

Ivory tower

Lack of focus

Lagging indicators

Learned helplessness

Long feedback cycles

Lying to investors

Magic salesperson

Mentor whiplash

Missing your exit

Myopic bootstrapping

Next round only

Not knowing your investors

One-off customization

Oooh, shiny!

Overengineering

Overselling

Oversteering

Platform trap

Premature optimization

Premature scaling

Promiscuity

Proof by anecdote

Pushing a rope

Raising too little

Random founders

Scapegoat

Second class citizens

Seed extensions

Secrecy

Silver bullet

Spreadsheet Bingo

Stovepipes

The one idea entrepreneur

Top-down planning

Uber pivot

Underqualifying

Unicorn hunting

Unrealistic expectations

Warm bodies

Weak board

Yes man

Zombie

Outsourcing your architecture (via Alan Neveu)

Note: the list is not “drawn to scale.” Some anti-patterns occur more frequently than others and some are more likely to cause a startup to fail than others.