May 21, 2019
For Even Hot Startups Premature Marketing Can Mean Premature Death
When the meal-delivery service Munchery filed for bankruptcy in February of this year, it owed $3 million in unfulfilled customer gift cards. In essence, the company’s marketing had outlived the company itself. And therein lies a critical lesson for entrepreneurs: aggressively marketing a product or service before you know if customers truly value it can be a kiss of death.
An analysis of more than 100 defunct startups by market intelligence company CB Insights identified the top 20 reasons fledgling companies fail. Number one: “no market need.” Number two: “run out of cash. Marketing in the face of number one usually leads to number two…
