The Paradox of Startup Methodologies: Why Widely-Adopted Advice Leads to Failure
By
lukestevens
A baker's-dozen of insight crammed into one ring.
Summary
The article critiques the startup advice industry, arguing that widely-adopted startup methodologies create convergence where founders build similar companies without differentiation, leading to failure. It suggests that when everyone follows the same bestselling startup techniques, the paradox becomes that success requires doing something different. The piece examines 25 years of startup punditry failures and proposes alternative approaches to entrepreneurship.
Key quotes
· 5 pulledAny method for building a startup, once widely known, causes founders to converge on the same answers.
If everyone follows the same bestselling startup techniques, everyone ends up building the same company and, with no differentiation, most of those companies fail.
The truth is, anytime someone insists on a method for how to build a successful startup, you should do something different.
The paradox is self-evident, once you think about it, but it contains the seed for how to move forward.
Startup pundits sold us a failed science of entrepreneurship.
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