10 MVP Mistakes That Kill Startups

Most MVPs fail for predictable reasons. Here are the mistakes you can avoid.

1. Building Before Validating

Writing code is not validation. Talking to users is. Build only after you know people will pay.

2. Too Many Features

An MVP with 20 features is not an MVP. Pick the one thing that solves the core problem. Everything else can wait.

3. Building for Everyone

"Everyone" is not a target market. Pick one specific person with one specific problem. Expand later.

4. Perfecting Before Launching

You'll learn more from one week with users than three months of polishing. Ship ugly, learn fast.

5. No Success Metric

If you don't know what success looks like, how will you know if you've achieved it? Define your metric upfront.

6. Ignoring Distribution

Building the product is half the job. Getting it in front of users is the other half. Plan both.

7. Building in Isolation

No feedback until launch is a recipe for building the wrong thing. Show early, show often.

8. Wrong Tech Stack Obsession

The framework doesn't matter. Speed to learning matters. Use what you know or what's fastest.

9. Copying Competitors

Competitors have different users, different contexts, different stages. Copy their questions, not their answers.

10. Giving Up Too Early

Most MVPs need 3-5 iterations to work. The first version rarely succeeds. Persistence beats perfection.