7 Startup Pitfalls to Avoid in 2024
A Founder's Guide on What To Stop Doing & What to Do Instead
Step one, ice baths.
How can you expect to grow your startup if you aren't following your 5am meditation session and reflective journaling with cold exposure?
Kidding, kidding…I couldn't resist. No offense to anyone who enjoys these strategies. They actually do have proven benefits - but they are not a requirement to be a founder or run a successful startup.
Optimized morning routines aside, there are some specific things you should focus on improving in 2024.
Here's a complete list of everything I wish startups would stop and start doing in 2024, in no particular order.
I know your plate is full, and everything seems like a hellscape of high priority - but please stop doing these things.
1. Ignoring Customers
Please don't stop trying to win your customers after they convert. Churn is a real problem, and in SaaS, you should always give them a reason to renew.
Listen to Customer Feedback
Your customers should have an easy way to share feedback with you. This could be with NPS surveys, support, feedback forms in the product, etc. Your customers are likely using your product more than you; this means that one feature that might not seem like a big deal to take 4 clicks has users rage-clicking because they do it every 10 minutes.
Build Customer Onboarding
Whether it's a dedicated CSM or in app onboarding flow. No UI is perfect, you need to show your customers how to get the most out of your product. You can't expect them to figure it out for themselves. It's your opportunity to solidify the value proposition of your product and ensure customers understand how to get the most out of it. Poor onboarding can lead to low engagement, dissatisfaction, and high churn rates.
Invest in Product Education
Writing documentation isn't sexy, I've done it, and to be honest, it kinda sucks. However, it's supercritical and actually not easy to do. You need clear, concise documentation - that is actually easy to find. This means including it in your onboarding and in product tooltips, making it accessible from the product and easily searchable. The ROI here is that your users will be more empowered with self-serve, and you might reduce some support burden.
Keep Customers at the Center
Place the customer at the center of every decision-making process. Whether it's product development, marketing, or sales, understanding and addressing customer needs should be your primary focus. This means putting customers' needs ahead of things like logistics or taking a shortcut, for example, releasing a feature to production to save time at the expense of customer education. This shift enhances customer satisfaction and leads to more informed product development and marketing strategies.
2. Half Baked Product Led Growth
If you focus on product-led growth (PLG) or have any self-serve product, this one is for you. PLG is more than just letting customers sign up on their own. It is a holistic strategy that requires a deep understanding of how your product fits into the customer's journey so you can optimize every step.
Optimize Your Product to Sell
This is one of the most painful things I see. Imagine someone signs up for your base plan, loves it, and uses it all the time… but it's just missing one feature. If only your product could do X, Y, Z. Do they look for other solutions? You have this feature, but they have no idea it's just one plan up because you never tell them. You hide this feature in the base plan so they never know it exists. This can be solved with empty states in the product that prompt upgrading, targeted customer marketing, and product education.
Stop Wasting PQLs
Many companies have hybrid models of PLG + Sales Led; in this case, you should be sourcing leads directly from freemium users. Product Qualified Leads (PQLs) are a goldmine, showing users with intent who have already engaged with your product and demonstrated a level of interest. Not effectively nurturing these leads can result in missed opportunities for conversion and growth.
3. Sabotaging Your Foundation
Your startup's narrative is more than just marketing fluff - it's the core story that defines your brand, product, and why your audience should care.
Build a Strong Narrative
A unified product story across all teams ensures consistent messaging and strengthens your brand. When sales, marketing, and product teams operate with different narratives, it leads to a fragmented brand image, confused customers, and even a bloated product. This narrative should weave through every aspect of your business, creating a compelling, cohesive, and relatable identity that resonates with your audience. A cohesive narrative means Marketing and Sales should sell the same thing that Product and Engineering are building.
4. Overlooking Operations
It might seem like low priority, but when you have your internal processes and tools optimized there is a compound efficiency gain. When everyone is on the same page, its a major win.
Unoptimized Project Management
Efficient project management is the backbone of any successful tech startup. In a landscape where teams often work asynchronously and across different time zones, a streamlined project management system provides a 'single source of truth,' ensuring everyone is on the same page. The lack of a robust system can lead to miscommunication, delays, and, ultimately, a slower route to market.
Lacking Transparency
Radical transparency within teams fosters a culture of trust, clarity, and shared goals. At early stages startups can’t afford to gate keep or work in silos. It involves open communication about company performance, challenges, and strategic decisions. This approach empowers employees and cultivates a sense of ownership and alignment with the company's vision.
Meetings on Meetings
I've never met a single person who was excited to add another meeting. Most meetings hold you and your team back. If you build an optimized project management source of truth, most updates and feedback can be managed asynchronously.
5. Being Everything for Everyone
If you are marketing to everyone, you are marketing to no one. In these scenarios, you might get lucky, but chances are you plateau at some point.
Understand Your Customer Segments
To build a compelling product story and GTM engine, you have to understand who your audience is. Usually, teams have a hunch that about 80% right, but you need to conduct thorough research to identify your ideal customer segments, understand their pain points, and tailor your strategies to meet their specific needs.
Narrow Down Your Ideal Customer
Speaking of customer segmentation, only spread your efforts thin across multiple segments once you have mastered your main segment first. Build a strong foothold, establish brand loyalty, and then leverage this success to expand into other segments. Just because you can expand into other segments doesn't mean you should.
Everyone Wants Enterprise
While enterprise accounts can be lucrative, the shiny big paycheck, targeting them without the necessary infrastructure, support, and product readiness, can backfire. I know it’s fun to say you are going up market, but enterprise accounts have longer selling cycles, higher expectations, and more needs, such as security requirements. Startups need to assess their capabilities realistically and focus on customer segments where they can deliver the most value.
6. Random Acts of Content
Don't produce content or marketing for the sake of doing it. It likely won't have a return and will use your valuable time and resources. Just say no to random acts of marketing (shout out to Rachel Shaver for all the times I heard her repeat this.)
Focus on Providing Actionable Value
Marketing is more than just talking about how great your product is - no one wants to subscribe or follow you for that. Your audience wants genuine value - how are you helping them? This could be through insightful content, valuable resources, or problem-solving tools that position your brand as a helpful authority in your industry. Every piece of content should provide the reader some actionable value.
Build Authentic Thought Leadership
In an increasingly crowded market, authenticity and thought leadership can set your startup apart. Focus on building a genuine, transparent brand and being seen as your industry's leading voice. It would be best if you were the best at whatever your product focuses on, and your audience should look to you for best practices. This involves sharing insights, engaging in industry conversations, and contributing to the broader discourse in your field. Bonus points if your company leaders are engaged here.
7. Forgetting About Data
Everyone says they are data-driven, but most of us aren’t. Yet, most startups are collecting data, only it ends up in a data warehouse somewhere and never sees the light of day. If you want to move the needle, you need to start measuring your changes.
Be Data Driven…For Real
This means actually collecting and curating your data to inform decisions and ensure that every feature, update, or pivot is based on concrete user insights and market trends. By rooting your product decisions in data, you avoid the pitfalls of assumption-based decisions and build a product that truly resonates with your target audience. It's easier to get started with data than you might think.
Cheers to 2024
That's a lot, and you probably won't be able to solve all these this year. The landscape's constantly changing, and keeping up can feel like a never-ending game.
But really, it's about sticking to the basics:
Listen to your customers.
Optimize your product for growth.
Build a strong narrative that all teams are aligned around.
Make sure your team is all on the same page.
Clarify which customer segment you are focusing on.
Focus on providing genuine value.
Incorporate data to avoid unchecked assumptions.
This list isn't one-size-fits-all advice, it's more like a collection of pointers picked up from the trenches of startup life. Take what works for you, adapt as you go, and don't sweat it if everything isn't perfect - it's all about continuously iterating.