Going too broad in the beginning…

I often talk to founders who say, “We are building a global platform …”. In those cases, if the project so far exists only on paper, I advise not to call it global. Globalness is something you earn when scaling to multiple countries, and not a feat that your project gets from birth. Most global companies began as local. 

I am not against high ambitions, but they should be justified. Unjustified ambitions more often than not indicate a lack of business experience.

“We are making a complete platform that will include everyone from vendors to end-users having multiple revenue streams…”. In those cases, I am afraid of seeing a Frankenstein monster without any clearly expressed need and the dominant business model.