Startup Challenges
By Inshirah Zaib
October 2025
Starting a business sounds glamorous; Make an app, get rich, retire early. But for every success story, there are thousands of startups that never make it past day one. The truth? Building a company is more about surviving chaos than having a “genius idea.”
The Big Hurdles Startups Face
Funding: Without money, you can’t buy supplies, create products, or hire people. But investors aren’t easily convinced. It takes time, negotiation, and a lot of hard work to acquire the finances needed to start a business.
Scaling: Imagine your homemade slime goes viral on TikTok and suddenly you’ve got 50,000 orders. Scaling means keeping up with demand without disappointing everyone, and even corporate giants can struggle with this.
Market entry: Even if your idea is solid, breaking into a crowded market is brutal. Take BlackBerry: In the early 2000s, it dominated the smartphone industry. But when Apple introduced the touchscreen iPhone in 2007, BlackBerry failed to adapt. Soon, it went from market leader to obsolete. Market entry isn’t just about being first, it’s about keeping up with change.
How Successful Founders Push Through
Adaptability is everything: Most startups don’t succeed with their first idea. Instagram started as a check-in app nobody cared about. The founders stripped it down to photo sharing and suddenly gained millions of users.
Start small, grow smart: Spotify launched in the UK before expanding worldwide, ironing out problems in a smaller market. By the time it hit the U.S., it could actually compete with Apple.
Build a community, not just customers: Glossier, the beauty brand, grew by listening to fans on social media and letting them help shape products. When people feel like insiders, they become loyal customers.
Fail fast: If your idea flops, don’t drag it out. Pivot, restart, and try again. Entrepreneurs like Elon Musk and Steve Jobs prove that failure isn’t the end, it’s part of the process.
Advice from People Who Made It
Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn): “If you’re not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.”
Mark Zuckerberg (Meta): “Move fast and break things.” Translation: Innovate and experiment, even if it means making a few mistakes.
Ginni Rometty (IBM): “Growth and comfort do not coexist.”
Why Startups Are Still Worth It
Yes, startups are exhausting. They’re full of rejection emails, long nights, and ramen dinners. But they’re also freedom and creative. Every massive company, from Apple to Netflix to Google, started as a risky experiment. If you can adapt quickly, listen to your customers, and accept failure, you might just build something that lasts. And even if you don’t? At least you’ve got one heck of a story to tell.