Week 5 Reading Reflection

I did not expect the author to mention “unclear business definition” as one of the reasons businesses fail. I never thought of that as a major issue in starting a new business venture. What I did not understand is why the author had “initial undercapitalization” and “assuming debt too early” as reasons why ventures fail. I would ask the author why assuming debt too early is bad when undercapitalization is an issue. Wouldn’t you want to invest in your business properly from the beginning? I would also ask the author why they think no product is instantly profitable. I think now more than ever products can be instantly profitable. The mobile app market is the perfect example of this. Games like Candy Crush, Temple Run and Angry Birds are great examples of apps that seemingly took off out of nowhere. I also disagreed with the fact that the author believes that founders who focus on their weaknesses rather than strengths is a reason why businesses fail. I think if Blackberry would have focused on their weaknesses, they would have kept a fair share of the mobile phone market. Instead, they focused on their “strengths” and lost all their market share to android and apple.