Why Your Startup Won’t Last (2024)

Summary.

Many startups fail because they don’t have a viable business model or idea, yet some startups struggle to survive despite successfully navigating the market.

• As startups grow, it becomes critical to add some elements of structure to help keep people accountable for their tasks and set expectations across the board. But structure often kills the initial entrepreneurial spirit.
• Other causes for failed startups include the challenges to recruit the right talent or the changing roles of the founder.
• Here are a few more common reasons startups have a hard time surviving in the long term, and what leaders can do about it.

• Ranjay Gulati is the Paul R. Lawrence MBA Class of 1942 Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. He is the author of Deep Purpose: The Heart and Soul of High-Performance Companies (Harper Business, 2022).

• Vasundhara Sawhney is a senior editor at Harvard Business Review.