What is a big no-no as a startup founder?

Here’s my list, based on five years in the startup scene:

• Asking other people for an NDA before you tell them about your startup idea. Please, just don’t.[1]
• Posting on Twitter that you’ve got funding secured to take your company private, even though you haven’t[2]

• Date your coworker (unless you’ve already dated before you started your company)
• Faking that you ran away with €35m of proceeds from your ICO, just to create a PR story [3]

• Screwing over co-founders or investors over their shares in the company
• Falsely claiming that you’ve invented a super-special blood test that only needs very small amounts of blood, then raising > $700m by lying to investors.[4]
• 

• Not researching competition before you start
• Refusing to hire people who are smarter than yourselves (or to listen to them after you’ve hired them). To quote my business school’s strategy professor: “A-People hire A-People. B-People hire C-People, because they want to feel like the smartes guys in the room.”
• Explaining your market potential like this: “There are x million people in (insert random market segment). If we only capture 1% of that, we’re GOLDEN!” (Yeah, but how do you capture that 1%?)
• Scam customers and investors by selling an overpriced juicer [5]

• Arguing over job titles (e.g. who’s going to become the CEO). If you can’t agree on responsibilities, maybe you’re not responsible enough to run a company after all.
• Thinking you’re the superstar of your company just because your business card reads “CEO, bitch”. If you run your company like a king who gives commands, you’ll have a hard time keeping your team motivated. Better define your role like the captain of a sports team, who is leading his mates while still fighting on the pitch.
• Losing focus
• Not being 100% committed to your company
• Wasting investor’s money on useless things like company cars or a super-high salary, instead of spending it to advance your business
• 

Footnotes

[1] No-one will steal your f***ing Startup Idea, so stop asking for NDAs

[2] Why Elon Musk Reversed Course on Taking Tesla Private

[3] ‘Over and Out’: $50 Million Savedroid ICO Makes Apparent Exit Scam

[4] Theranos – Wikipedia

[5] Juicero – Wikipedia

Originally appeared on Quora by Andreas Kitzing. Follow him on Quora!