Startup Mistakes to Avoid - Shiza Shahid (Our Place)

Could you talk about the worst decision you have ever made? Okay, that's a tough one. Worst decision I have ever made. I don't know, probably like a bad date or something in the business world, I think some bad decisions that I've made have stemmed from, from, oh, this is what everybody does. Oh, let's go and pay this really expensive branding agency way more than like we, we can afford. Oh, that's what everybody else is doing, right? And they're so good and they did that brand and they did that brand. Or let's go and hire this really like senior person from, you know, a very large company. Even though we're a startup that needs, you know, people who have startup experience and can navigate all, all of that uncertainty. I think it's those things that often lead to, to bad decisions is the sense of FOMO or the sense of, well, that's the formula. That's what they did and they did, so that's what we should do. Those are often the things that, you know, and often you have the spidey sense of it doesn't feel right or I don't know if that interview something. That's when, you know, I've wasted money or, you know, paid too much or brought someone in who was clearly not the right fit and it was, you know, hard for them and for us. Those decisions are ones that now I, I really try and avoid. I think the other thing is decisions made from a lack of data. Right. So we as a business, four and a half years old and we've gone through a pandemic and a recession, Right. So as we look at our business data, it's hard to, to know what we think of as a steady state and to make decisions based on that. So those would be, I think two areas that I would be cautious of as you build is don't try and follow the herd. There's no formula for it. There are no magic bullets. And you know, try and figure out as quickly as you can what your steady state data looks like so you can forecast and predict and plan better.