Having co-founded Startupbootcamp (the accelerator for startups), Innoleaps (the accelerator for global enterprises) and The Talent Institute (the accelerator for digital talent), Patrick De Zeeuw has worked all around the globe with many different companies, startups and scaleups. Through Startupbootcamp he has also invested in over 600 companies (mostly startups and scaleups but also full grown enterprises) worldwide. In all his years of being an entrepreneur, working with entrepreneurs and supporting entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs, he has learnt and experienced many do-s and don’t-s of starting and scaling up a company. Just last month, Patrick shared his take on the Top 30 F#ckups of Startup Founders, at the largest tech fair in Europe, Hannover Messe. Here is numbers #1 - #10.

3. Startups
accelerated since
2010 and adding
200 new startups
each year
650+
Corporate Startups
launched &
accelerated for
Fortune 500
companies
175+
Innovators empowered
on 6 continents
200.000+
Young Digital
Talents provided
to Scale-ups
500+

4. Amsterdam Barcelona Berlin Mexico City Melbourne
Istanbul London Singapore Miami New York Rome
Mumbai Chengdu
Cape Town Copenhagen
San Francisco
In cities all over the world

5. 39- WAYS
FOUNDERS
SCREW UP

6. Picking the wrong
or bad idea

7. Only work on
those problems
you are obsessed
about & will
always keep you
going

8. Not validating
your riskiest
assumptions

9. What do you think the E in
CEO @ a Startup stands for ?

10. Chief
Entrepreneur

11. Under estimating what it
means to be the CEO &
founder of a startup / scale-
up

12. As the
entrepreneur,
you’re not only
running a
company you’re
building one.

13. The Chief Entrepreneur
relentlessly improves both
the startup and his/her own
management capabilities.

14. (S)he ensures that
there is a plan B if
and when plan A
fails and it always
does you are ready.

15. Not
understanding
the core startup
functions & know
how you should
have

16. Team Growth Financing
Leadership Product Customers
THE CORE FUNCTIONS OF STARTUPS ARE:
The CEnO should have a vision, strategy and execute on all 6 topics

17. A startup cannot succeed
without a team…
but even more important a
startup cannot exist without a
chief entrepreneur.

18. Not being 200%
committed &
willing to give
up other great
things

19. Not having
an amazing
team that is
fully aligned

20. Why do sports
coaches only
pick a-players
on their team?

21. Not hiring only
(potential) 9+
on your team
13

22. Not firing fast
if you feel
there is no
(cultural) fit
14

23. Not
appointing a
pre-mediator