Joe FierHead of Builds, Delphi · Scaling expert knowledge with AI

Avoiding Startup Failure: The Critical First 18 Months

Name: Avoiding Startup Failure: The Critical First 18 Months
Uploaded: 2025-03-31T18:02:32+00:00
Duration: 46 s
Channel: Joe Fier
Description: Joe Fier explains why 47.1% of startups fail in their first 12-18 months, with 90% gone within five years. Most later failures trace back to early…

31 Mar 2025 · 1 min

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0:46

Joe Fier explains why 47.1% of startups fail in their first 12-18 months, with 90% gone within five years. Most later failures trace back to early decisions. He compares founders without a plan to driving from San Diego to San Francisco blindfolded.

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47.1%

Up to 90%

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What people don't realize is, like, 47.1% of startups fail in the first 12 to 18 months, and the rest fail up to 90% over the following five years. So that first 18 months is really important, because over the following five years, most of the failures happened because of decisions they made in the first 18 months. Makes it. Yeah. So it's, like, really, really important. And it's not surprising. Right. I mean, if you're going from one place to another, let's say you're driving from San Diego to San Francisco, and you don't have a map, and you don't know when you're supposed to stop for fuel or food or anything, and you're just sort of, like, flying by the seat of your pants, which is what most founders do. You're obviously going to make some mistakes.