Startup Sales — 5 Common Sales Mistakes by Founders
August 12, 2025
Founders are responsible for the first sales a startup will make. For many founders, this is one of their very first experiences of sales and mistakes are often made.
Today, we’re continuing to talk about committing to an idea and now focusing on how much customer research is needed.
Talking to 5 people is simply not enough, even if they’re very knowledgeable or important potential customers. I would set 50 people as the absolute minimum for each customer profile you’re researching. The best entrepreneurs usually report talking to hundreds of people before they finally commit to an idea.
If you’ve spoken to enough people, you should have found at least a small group who want your solution, and they need it badly. If you’re not seeing at least 10 customers desperate to try out your product, you may have more research to do.
When you’ve spoken to enough people, you will also have seen different ways the problem is currently solved and why those approaches are problematic. Your idea cannot suffer from all those same issues, it must be 10x better.
Best of luck out there.
