I was looking for interesting Quora discussion threads when I chanced upon a question that’s no less than five years old but is still very much relevant today:

“What are the top reasons why startups fail?”

Answers vary and originate mostly from investors and startup founders, people who have come face to face with startup failure at least once in their lives, making the thread a treasure trove of information for those looking for solid, real-world advice.

Alongside input from sources like Entrepreneur, The Next Web, and Inc.com, the list below includes the Quora thread’s major takeaways.

Top 15 Reasons Your Startup Is Doomed to Fail:

• 1) Lack of consumer interest

Keith Rabois, a tech entrepreneur known for his executive roles with LinkedIn, PayPal, Slide, and Square, asserts that 90% of the time, Internet startups fail because of their “inability to acquire and retain a substantial number of users.”

Bernard Moon, co-founder and general partner at SparkLabs Global, has this to say: “The market simply isn’t there.”

“Build it and they will come” is one major myth that has long been debunked.

No matter how great you think your product or service is, without consumer interest, without enough people willing to pay you for it, your business will soon die a natural death.

One proven way to combat this is validating your idea before plunging into the startup game head-on.

Sujan Patel, marketing VP at When I Work, lists 20 questions to ask, while Xprt co-founder Ariel Rosenthal, in his The Next Web article, shows seven ways to validate your startup idea.

• 2) Bad (or ill-timed) product

“Most ideas are bad,” says Oliver Emberton, managing director and founder of Silktide, a software provider. He adds that entrepreneurs gamble on hunches, and therefore, the proliferation of misguided ideas.

We all know what happens with products borne out of bad ideas.

And then, there are startups that got into the game ahead of their time. Business Insider lists 10 examples, three of which are AskJeeves, Dodgeball, and Pets.com.

• 3) Not having the right team

Michael Ellison, COO of CodePath, a company providing software development classes, says, “… in the early days of a startup, there is no product.” Instead, what you have are a vision and a team.

But if the members of your team are not equipped with the right tools, skills, and mindset to bring your vision to fruition, the likelihood of your startup gaining traction is minimal.

A TechCrunch article pegs people at the top of the food chain to emphasize their importance to startup success. No matter how brilliant your idea is, without the team to execute it, it’s simply an idea.

Remember, ideas are a dime a dozen. It’s execution that carries far more weight.

• 4) Running out of money

Nobody welcomes the thought of running out of money to fund their most basic needs. Now, imagine not having the financial means to pay the people who work for you.

Mahesh Murthy, a marketer and venture capitalist, asserts that the number one reason for startup failure is lack of funds. Jen Bekman, an art curator and entrepreneur, agrees, branding running out of money as a “real momentum killer.”

• 5) Stiff competition

According to FuckedUpStartups.com, when startups enter the market, they’re confronted with two types of competition: direct and indirect.

• Direct competitors offer the same product or service, market to the same geographical area, or use the same distribution channel.
• Indirect competitors have the same product or service but operate in a different geographical area. Others offer a completely different product or service for the same need your startup addresses.

The same article observes that in the early stages, competition isn’t at the forefront of startup founders’ minds. Instead, they become enamored by what they honestly believe are life-changing ideas that when faced with stiff competition, they find themselves closing up shop after losing all the money they have.

• 6) Disharmony

This can easily fall under the “not having the right team” umbrella, but conflict with investors also happens.

In an Inc.com article, writer Geoffrey James divided into seven categories the 20 reasons 135 startups failed. As gathered by CB Insights, 36% of the surveyed startup founders cited egotism as the reason their startups failed, 13% pointing to team or investor discord as the culprit.

• 7) Bad business model

In 2013, there was this app that I thought was poised to give Evernote a run for its money. It was, as far as I was concerned, slicker, far more enjoyable to use, and less buggy. Not long after, however, it was announced that it was shutting down and even offered to migrate my saved data to Evernote, ironically.

Experts and observers, including the co-founder himself, cited several reasons for Springpad’s demise, but one reason resonates the loudest: It failed to establish a revenue model fast enough.

Chris Baskerville, a partner at Jirsch Sutherland, an advisory and consulting firm, says that “most failed business owners stop planning at the concept stage.” He suggests to meticulously plan business models the same way you would a family holiday.

The business plan should include details like operations, financial forecasting, funding, ramp-up, and logistics, among others.

• 8) Poor marketing

Marketing is about getting consumers to recognize the value of a brand, product, or service, engage with a target audience, showcase industry expertise, and boost revenues.

In the case of failed startups:

• They fail to hire the right people to do the marketing for them.
• The distinctive competencies of their offering have not been clearly established. Neither is their positioning.
• Not much user traction, therefore, not much word-of-mouth marketing.
• The marketing strategy doesn’t fit.

According to Wharton marketing professor Leonard Lodish, leveraging your happy customers should come right after positioning and targeting.

• 9) Loss of focus

In the beginning are unbridled enthusiasm and a lone vision fueling many sleepless nights, but as time flies by, some startups lose their focus.

In a TechTarget article by Bryan Barringer, a business operations and technology expert, the reasons contributing to this scenario include:

• Too much passion
• Too many visions
• Investor expectations
• Rapidly evolving technology, regulations, and political climate

Several factors contributed to mobile app Blurtt’s demise. One of these, according to co-founder Jeanette Cajide, was they kept changing the business model. From its inception in 2009 to the day it was shut down in 2012, Blurrt went from idea #1 to idea #4, none of which achieved remarkable success.

• 10) Burnout

Burnout can happen to anyone, and startup founders, after pouring all their time and energy into building their company from the ground up, are especially prone to it, more so during phases when all their hard work doesn’t seem to be gaining any foothold.

If you’re in the brink of a burnout, Mattermark’s tips on fighting startup burnout is worth a look.

• 11) Failure to change tack when faced with a roadblock

One essential trait startup leaders must possess is the ability to regroup, tweak, or even change their business model midstream. This may run counter to the “loss of focus” point made earlier, but in a constantly changing business landscape, flexibility is a winning startup characteristic.

Michael Hyatt’s article on embracing the power of the pivot, as showcased by Groupon, is a story of near failure that turned into startup success.

• 12) Pricing vs. cost issues

When it comes to pricing your product or service, it’s a matter of finding just the right balance, a classic “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” question. Price it too low and, after expenses, you may not even earn a decent income. Price it too high and you may turn people away.

This Entrepreneur article by angel investor Tim Berry details three pricing strategies. He also has this to say about pricing too low.

“Without the related marketing, low price just sets low expectations.”

• 13) Bad location

For businesses with brick-and-mortar locations, this doesn’t need much explanation. If you’re a retailer, you’ll need foot traffic to your stores, and where you’re located can spell the difference between disaster and success. Most people won’t shop in a neighborhood where they feel unsafe, or in poorly maintained, dilapidated buildings, more so if there are better options nearby.

For Internet-based startups, your office location matters. You’d want to set up shop in an area with the most talents, investors, and mentors. If you work with remote workers from varying time zones, an effective communication and collaboration strategy is an imperative.

• 14) No investor interest

Bernard Moon summarizes the “too little funding” situation well: “You raise too little and you’re always chasing the next bridge loan or funding rounds to take your company to the next half-step.”

No cash, no investor interest – it’s not rocket science, really. When there’s nothing left to spend and no funding to turn to, business failure becomes imminent.

• 15) Expanding too soon

A GeekWire article from 2011 refers to this as “premature scaling,” a situation when high-growth companies expand way before they’re ready. This can come in the form of hiring too many employees or raising the marketing budget before sustainable revenue is established.

Premature scaling is often a byproduct of the founders’ overzealous optimism.

Final word

Nobody ever said that running a business is easy, let alone starting one from scratch.

Even the great Google spawned a few duds, which goes to show that failure can happen to anyone. But you don’t have to reinvent the wheel, and the list above aims to help you do just that.

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