- Startups fail because founders give up when they run out of money or energy.
- Founders run out of these resources because they have no users or not enough users to convince investors.
- Startups have no users because they fail to build something people want.
- The most common mistake is not talking to users and building something the founders think users want but they actually don't.
- Technical founders often focus on code instead of user feedback, while creative founders may use the Steve Jobs argument to avoid talking to users.
- The lesson is to spend time talking to users, observing them, and learning what products they want.
- Founders should listen to users' problems but ultimately make the decisions on what to build.
- By building things that people actually want, startups can avoid the most common reason for failure.

Harj Taggar talks about the reasons many startups fail. Harj Taggar is a partner at YC and was the CEO and co-founder of Triplebyte.

Hey everyone, I am Haj, partner at Y Combinator.

I'm going to answer the question of why do startups fail?

Startups fail because the founders give up and stop working on them, and founders give up because they run out of money or energy or both.

And they run out of these things because either they have no users, or they didn't have enough users to convince investors or themselves that the startup deserves more money or effort to keep it alive.

So the reason they have no users is because, as YC's motto goes, they did not build something people want.

And there are multiple ways to not build something people want, but the most common I've seen is to not talk to your users and build something you think they want but that they don't actually want.

The first is more common with technical founders where instead of talking to users, they just keep rewriting their code to make it prettier and more elegant and faster.

And this is a trap because users don't care how amazing your code is.

All they care is if your product solves a real problem for them or not.

Creative and ideas e-founders can tend to kind of use the Steve Jobs argument to avoid talking to their users, which is that Steve Jobs was a visionary and he didn't believe in talking to his users, so why should I talk to my users?

I'll kind of just intuit everything I need to build.

And the reason that's a bad idea is 1, you're probably not Steve Jobs.

But even if you were, I think that advice is not actually what he did.

Steve Jobs spent his entire life thinking deeply about the ways that consumers interact with technology and products, and he was building products for consumers.

So the actual lesson to take from there is you should spend a lot of time talking to your users, watching them, observing them, and learning what kinds of products they want you to build.

As a startup founder, you're a doctor and the users are your patients.

So you should always go and talk to your patients and listen to what they say their symptoms are and what they're complaining about, but you won't let them prescribe their own medicines.

So make sure you talk to your users, build things that people actually want, and you'll avoid the most common way that startups fail.


Speaker 0: Hey everyone, I am Haj, partner at Y Combinator. I'm going to answer the question of why do startups fail? So I'll work backwards to answer this 1. Startups fail because the founders give up and stop working on them, and founders give up because they run out of money or energy or both. And they run out of these things because either they have no users, or they didn't have enough users to convince investors or themselves that the startup deserves more money or effort to keep it alive.

So the reason they have no users is because, as YC's motto goes, they did not build something people want. And there are multiple ways to not build something people want, but the most common I've seen is to not talk to your users and build something you think they want but that they don't actually want. And there are 2 common flavors of this. The first is more common with technical founders where instead of talking to users, they just keep rewriting their code to make it prettier and more elegant and faster. And this is a trap because users don't care how amazing your code is.

All they care is if your product solves a real problem for them or not. Creative and ideas e-founders can tend to kind of use the Steve Jobs argument to avoid talking to their users, which is that Steve Jobs was a visionary and he didn't believe in talking to his users, so why should I talk to my users? I'll kind of just intuit everything I need to build. And the reason that's a bad idea is 1, you're probably not Steve Jobs. But even if you were, I think that advice is not actually what he did.

Steve Jobs spent his entire life thinking deeply about the ways that consumers interact with technology and products, and he was building products for consumers. So the actual lesson to take from there is you should spend a lot of time talking to your users, watching them, observing them, and learning what kinds of products they want you to build. As a startup founder, you're a doctor and the users are your patients. So you should always go and talk to your patients and listen to what they say their symptoms are and what they're complaining about, but you won't let them prescribe their own medicines. That's your job.

So make sure you talk to your users, build things that people actually want, and you'll avoid the most common way that startups fail.

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Harj Taggar - Why Do Startups Fail