Are You Guilty of These 3 Biases That Kill Most Startups? Founders succumb to three common cognitive biases that sink most startups.

We make over 35,000 decisions every day — from subconscious ones such as deciding the side of the bed to wake up from, to more strategic ones such as when to pivot our startup.

Unfortunately, many of these decisions end up being flawed. 74 percent of startups go bust because they decided to scale a little too early. When nine out of every ten startups fail, one wonders why founders end up making bad decisions so often. As an entrepreneur, this gives me the shivers.

According to Tom Eisenmann, professor at the Harvard Business School (HBS), there are recurring patterns that explain why many startups come to nothing. After studying hundreds of founders and investors, he shares the findings in his book, Why Startups Fail.