10 Mistakes That Start-Up Entrepreneurs Make

George Roberts

September 7, 2010

As a partner in a Boston based Venture Capital firm that invests growth capital in expansion stage companies, I was reading last week’s WSJ when I came across an article that I wanted to share with founders, CEOs and the management teams of early and expansion stage software companies that is relevant to the challenges they face and the decisions they make every day.

As an operational software executive for over 25 years, I made plenty of good decisions and I also made mistakes, which is how I learned to make better decisions through the pain they caused. But one philosophy I always had was to try and learn from other people’s mistakes, so I did not have to make them myself.

The article is titled “10 Mistakes That Start-Up Entrepreneurs Make“, and you can read about it here.

My advice to you is to read it and file it away where you can find it again. Then pull it out to review every now and then to refresh yourself… it is always easier to learn from other people’s mistakes then your own.

All the best!

G

Venture Partner

<strong>George Roberts</strong> is a Venture Partner at OpenView. He enjoys partnering with companies and helping them achieve their goals through strategy, focus and operational execution. From 1990 to 2003, George spent 13 years at Oracle Corporation, most recently having served as Executive Vice President of North American Sales. While at Oracle, George was responsible for over $1 billion in revenue and more than 2,000 employees, reporting directly to the company’s CEO and Chairman, Larry Ellison.