How to F*ck Up Your Startup: The Science Behind Why 90% of Companies Fail--and How You Can Avoid It
WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER

Every business owner dreams of success, but the majority of businesses are doomed to fail.

This book offers a journey through the pitfalls that cause 90% of companies to crash—and the crucial remedies entrepreneurs can use to avoid (or fix) them.


Kim Hvidkjær was 29 years old when he became a millionaire. Two years later, after a cluster of disasters, he found himself basically broke. Now, having rebuilt his fortune as the founder of several successful enterprises and studied thousands of failed startups, Hvidkjær has become an expert in failure: what it means, what it looks like, and the strategies that business owners can use to prevent it.

In How to F*ck Up Your Startup, he takes us on an entertaining and enlightening journey through the complex patterns of failure in the life cycle of a business, covering:
  • Attitude mistakes
  • Business model missteps
  • Market research snafus
  • Funding and financial blunders
  • Product development errors
  • Organization oversights
  • Sales slip-ups
  • Growing pains

  • Most important, he tackles what to do when your business has gone wrong.

    Hvidkjær fleshes out a tangible, usable blueprint for entrepreneurs looking to learn (the easy way) from the mistakes of businesses gone before. Chock-full of easy-to-follow business lessons that will keep you from f*cking up your startup, this down-to-earth guide offers crucial, actionable advice for seasoned business owners and startup founders alike.

    A masterclass in failure, How to F*ck Up Your Startup is required reading for reaching success.
    "1140785759"
    How to F*ck Up Your Startup: The Science Behind Why 90% of Companies Fail--and How You Can Avoid It
    WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER

    Every business owner dreams of success, but the majority of businesses are doomed to fail.

    This book offers a journey through the pitfalls that cause 90% of companies to crash—and the crucial remedies entrepreneurs can use to avoid (or fix) them.


    Kim Hvidkjær was 29 years old when he became a millionaire. Two years later, after a cluster of disasters, he found himself basically broke. Now, having rebuilt his fortune as the founder of several successful enterprises and studied thousands of failed startups, Hvidkjær has become an expert in failure: what it means, what it looks like, and the strategies that business owners can use to prevent it.

    In How to F*ck Up Your Startup, he takes us on an entertaining and enlightening journey through the complex patterns of failure in the life cycle of a business, covering:
  • Attitude mistakes
  • Business model missteps
  • Market research snafus
  • Funding and financial blunders
  • Product development errors
  • Organization oversights
  • Sales slip-ups
  • Growing pains

  • Most important, he tackles what to do when your business has gone wrong.

    Hvidkjær fleshes out a tangible, usable blueprint for entrepreneurs looking to learn (the easy way) from the mistakes of businesses gone before. Chock-full of easy-to-follow business lessons that will keep you from f*cking up your startup, this down-to-earth guide offers crucial, actionable advice for seasoned business owners and startup founders alike.

    A masterclass in failure, How to F*ck Up Your Startup is required reading for reaching success.
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    How to F*ck Up Your Startup: The Science Behind Why 90% of Companies Fail--and How You Can Avoid It

    How to F*ck Up Your Startup: The Science Behind Why 90% of Companies Fail--and How You Can Avoid It

    by Kim Hvidkjaer
    How to F*ck Up Your Startup: The Science Behind Why 90% of Companies Fail--and How You Can Avoid It

    How to F*ck Up Your Startup: The Science Behind Why 90% of Companies Fail--and How You Can Avoid It

    by Kim Hvidkjaer

    Hardcover

    $30.00 
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    Overview

    WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER

    Every business owner dreams of success, but the majority of businesses are doomed to fail.

    This book offers a journey through the pitfalls that cause 90% of companies to crash—and the crucial remedies entrepreneurs can use to avoid (or fix) them.


    Kim Hvidkjær was 29 years old when he became a millionaire. Two years later, after a cluster of disasters, he found himself basically broke. Now, having rebuilt his fortune as the founder of several successful enterprises and studied thousands of failed startups, Hvidkjær has become an expert in failure: what it means, what it looks like, and the strategies that business owners can use to prevent it.

    In How to F*ck Up Your Startup, he takes us on an entertaining and enlightening journey through the complex patterns of failure in the life cycle of a business, covering:
  • Attitude mistakes
  • Business model missteps
  • Market research snafus
  • Funding and financial blunders
  • Product development errors
  • Organization oversights
  • Sales slip-ups
  • Growing pains

  • Most important, he tackles what to do when your business has gone wrong.

    Hvidkjær fleshes out a tangible, usable blueprint for entrepreneurs looking to learn (the easy way) from the mistakes of businesses gone before. Chock-full of easy-to-follow business lessons that will keep you from f*cking up your startup, this down-to-earth guide offers crucial, actionable advice for seasoned business owners and startup founders alike.

    A masterclass in failure, How to F*ck Up Your Startup is required reading for reaching success.

    Product Details

    ISBN-13: 9781637740590
    Publisher: BenBella Books, Inc.
    Publication date: 02/15/2022
    Pages: 384
    Sales rank: 617,528
    Product dimensions: 5.70(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.20(d)

    About the Author

    Kim Hvidkjær was 29 years old the day he realized he was a millionaire. Two years later, after a cluster of self-described 'fuckups', he found himself 'basically broke,' having lost more money in that short period than the average American earns in a lifetime. Now 43, and having rebuilt his fortune as the founder of several successful enterprises, Kim has become something of an "Expert in Failure." Following interviews with dozens of startup founders and the quantitative and qualitative study of thousands of failed startups, he developed a comprehensive guide to the concept of failure—what it means, what it looks like, and the strategies that business owners can employ to avoid it. Of course, failure was never something Kim anticipated dedicating his life to. He started his first company at 19, itching for success, and has worked as a serial entrepreneur, investor, board member, and business advisor ever since. With experience across the Entertainment, Media, FMCG, Hosting, SaaS, Utility, and Broadband industries, he was named one of Denmark’s "6 Rising Stars" in 2008 and joined Mensa ‘just for fun’ in 2009.

    Table of Contents

    Introduction 1

    1 Attitude F*ckups 12

    Not Starting 16

    Impostor Syndrome 21

    The Passion Pinch 27

    Plate-Spinning 34

    Lone-Wolf Syndrome 37

    2 Business Model F*ckups 42

    A Poor Business Plan 46

    Idiot Industry 52

    The Problem-Less Solution 59

    Co-Dependency Collapse 63

    Terrible Timing 69

    Mini-Mindset 74

    3 Market Research F*ckups 80

    Doppelganger Danger 83

    Unnecessarily Original 89

    Competing with the Network Effect 92

    Customers-What Customers? 100

    Messed-Up MVP 104

    Analysis Paralysis 108

    Cheating and Ripping People Off 112

    4 Funding F*ckups 118

    Getting Funded 121

    Convoluting Capital 127

    Bad Budgeting 133

    The Cap-Table Capsize 136

    Amateur Accounting 142

    Inadequate Early Profitability 148

    Death by Overfunding 153

    5 Product Development F*ckups 158

    The FNAC 163

    The Big Bang Release 168

    The Mashup 171

    Identity Crisis 174

    Overcorrecting Success and Failure 178

    Overzealous Outsourcing 181

    Not Stealing from Giants 185

    6 Organizational F*ckups 192

    The Flawed Founding Team 195

    The Missing Co-Founder 203

    Friends and Family On Board 206

    Rush to the Altar 210

    Hiring Freeze 214

    Horrible Hiring 217

    Hiring Men 220

    Firing Phobia 224

    Awful Accountability 229

    The Forever CEO 234

    7 Sales F*ckups 240

    Lacking Sales Talent 244

    Missing Sales Metrics 246

    Non-Structured Sales 248

    The Flawed Product-Market Fit 257

    Product Pleasing 262

    Building Sales on a Weak Product 265

    Pricing Predicaments 269

    Over-Promise, Under-Deliver 272

    Rejecting Revenue 276

    8 Growth F*ckups 282

    Poor Pivoting 286

    Wrong-Work Distractions 290

    Bad Decisions 293

    Overcomplicating Operations 301

    Growing Too Fast 304

    Giving Up Too Soon 309

    Not Knowing When to Quit 314

    9 All the F*ckups You Never Saw Coming 320

    Not Believing the Future Is Predictable 323

    The Future Is Certain but Unwritten 331

    Conclusion (Okay, So You Still F*cked Up. Now What?) 339

    Acknowledgments 347

    Index 349

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