From an outsider's perspective, especially as a customer or prospect, what's the biggest red flag that a startup is in trouble/about to fail?

1.3k views1 Upvote11 Comments

Sort By:

Oldest

Global Head of AI, Data & Analytics in Softwarea year ago

Lies or misinformation in their pitch deck

CTO in Softwarea year ago

High Turnover Rate
Lack of Product Updates
Poor Customer Service
Negative Online Reviews and Social Media Feedback
Lack of Communication
Delayed Payments
Inconsistent or Declining Sales
Frequent Pivots

CTO in Healthcare and Biotecha year ago

I’ve been un startups since 1998 and I can tell you from the customer side that not fully solving problems is the biggest factor for a startup to fail.

Also, from the Engineering side that it doesn’t have an elastic infrastructure to withhold all the transactions or their infrastructure costs are higher than they’re supposed to be.

From the product side, that changes to the product are often without letting them to be used properly by the user and evolve naturally.

Finally, from the founders side that their ego is higher than their startup.

Please join or sign in to view more content.

By joining the Peer Community, you'll get:

Peer Discussions and Polls
One-Minute Insights
Connect with like-minded individuals

Director of Data in Consumer Goodsa year ago

In my opinion, is a consistent lack of responsiveness or poor communication. When a startup is unable to provide timely and effective customer support, it may indicate internal disorganization, understaffing, or a lack of focus on customer needs.

Retired - Former Executive Advisor, CEO / CIO in Manufacturinga year ago

Not meeting expectations, lack of communications and delays.

Content you might like

If you have had a negative experience with a vendor (without naming the vendor), what did you learn from it?

Financial Management Vendor Management

VP of Global IT and Cybersecurity in Manufacturing6 years ago

Have clear business requirements up front, make sure the proposal includes items such as scope, timeline, cost, resources.

What is your primary deciding factor in adopting enterprise search?

Strategy & Architecture Cloud End-User Services & Collaboration+26 more

TCO19%

Pricing26%

Integrations21%

Alignment with Cloud Provider7%

Security10%

Alignment with Existing IT Skills4%

Product / Feature Set7%

Vendor Relationship / Reputation

Other (comment)

View Results

5.7k views3 Upvotes1 Comment

I have just been asked by an exec from another function to audit a critical project in their portfolio which does not appear to be going well. I have some ideas based on my own PMO experience, but wanted to explore how peers might think about approaching such an exercise. Considerations: - outside my main role - risk of conflict with the leader providing project management services to this exec - sensitivity within the other function to potential criticism of their governance - readiness of the project team to provide relevant information

Relationship Management Project Management Culture & Values+2 more

CFO3 days ago

I recommend that you consider finding an outside third party to perform the audit. I have had to do something similar with an unprofitable division/product line that reports directly to our CEO. We outsourced with Alvarez ...read more

130 views1 Comment

Looking for others insight into how they are measuring capacity for their Robotics Process Automation Programs. We have almost 100 bots in production and a defined amount of developers. We are continuing to deploy new bots/new use cases as well as sustaining all existing bots in production. What have others done to define a "trip wire" for identifying when you hit max capacity?

Disruptive & Emerging Technologies

18 views

Is flutter flow best for app builder software

Applications & Platforms Cloud Contact Center & Telecom+15 more

Yes79%

No20%

1.2k views