Why Startups Fail Book – Is It Worth Your Time?

Answer in one sentence: Yes—read it. Eisenmann distills a decade of research into six patterns you can spot (and prevent) early.

• Good Idea, Bad Bedfellows – solid concept paired with weak team, investors, or partners.
• False Starts – building before validating a clear customer pain.
• False Positives – early traction masks lack of product-market fit.
• Speed Traps – growth outpaces ops and cash.
• Help Wanted – founder skill gaps ignored until too late.
• Cascading Crises – stacked shocks topple a fragile org.

Data over anecdotes

Eisenmann analysed 470 post-mortems plus dozens of live cases to isolate structural causes, not founder gossip.

Pattern 1 – Good Idea, Bad Bedfellows

Strong concept + mis-aligned investors or suppliers = slow death. Think on-demand laundry startups that burned VC cash before unit-economics were real.

Pattern 2 – False Starts

Teams who love building leap past discovery; cash evaporates on features nobody needs. Apply: enforce 20 customer interviews before the first line of code.

Pattern 3 – False Positives

Paid acquisition or PR "spikes" mislead founders into scaling prematurely. Track retention cohorts, not top-line sign-ups.

Pattern 4 – Speed Traps

Growth hides ops debt; churn and culture rot surface later. Guardrails: weekly cash-out date, staff planning tied to trailing 90-day KPIs.

Pattern 5 – Help Wanted

Founders cling to every hat; specialists arrive only after cracks show. Solve early with a fractional CFO/ops lead.

Pattern 6 – Cascading Crises

One shock triggers another when buffers are thin—e.g., funding delay → lay-offs → morale collapse. Build redundancy (cash, suppliers, decision-makers).

Every failure pattern bleeds runway in different ways, but the common thread is ignored signals. Eisenmann's taxonomy arms you with a checklist to catch danger months earlier. For the full zero-to-one roadmap (ideation → traction → scale), see Starting A Startup (/startup-book/starting-a-startup/).

• Run your startup through the six-pattern audit; document red flags.
• Add a "validation gate" before any major build sprint.
• Instrument retention cohorts to detect false positives.
• Cap growth at ops capacity; revisit monthly.
• Draft a crisis cascade plan (cash, comms, culture).