La storia con il testo
HostToday on Founders' Notes I'm talking to Marcus Webb, who's invested in more than eighty early-stage companies. Marcus, when start-ups fail, people usually blame a lack of money. Is that what you see?
MarcusRunning out of money is how most start-ups die, but it's rarely why. It's the symptom, not the cause. The single most common underlying reason, in my experience and in most of the research I've seen, is building something that not enough people actually want.
HostHow does that happen? Surely founders talk to customers.
MarcusThey talk to customers, but they often ask the wrong questions. If you ask someone, 'Would you use an app that does this?', most people will politely say yes. It costs them nothing. The question that matters is whether they'll change their behavior or pay for it. Polite enthusiasm is the most dangerous data a founder can collect.
HostWhat's the second biggest reason?
MarcusProblems within the founding team. Co-founders often start as friends, and they avoid difficult conversations about roles and equity because it feels awkward. Then, eighteen months in, under pressure, those unresolved questions explode.
HostAnd what about timing? We hear a lot about being too early.
MarcusTiming is underrated. Plenty of failed companies had the right idea ten years too soon. Online grocery delivery is the classic example: it was tried, expensively, around the year two thousand, and only became mainstream much later, once smartphones and logistics caught up.
HostSo what do you look for before you invest?
MarcusEvidence of real demand, even small. I'd rather see twenty customers who are genuinely paying than a slide deck promising a billion-dollar market.
