Startup Anti-Patterns
- ID
- 19902
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 30 Aug 2026, 11:57 PM
- Fetched
- 01 Sep 2026, 8:03 AM
- Provider
- Hacker News
- Category
- dev-community
- Original URL
- https://www.itamarnovick.com/intro-to-startup-anti-pattern-series/
- Source URL
- https://hnrss.org/best
Summary
- Score
- 6.5
- Created
- 01 Sep 2026, 8:06 AM
- Tags
- Audience
- saas_foundersdevelopers
What happened
Itamar Novick (Recursive Ventures) and Simeon Simeonov are publishing a series on startup anti-patterns, arguing that studying repeatable failure modes is more useful than studying non-repeatable success stories. The intro post lists 70+ named anti-patterns—from 'premature scaling' and 'platform risk' to 'featuritis' and 'founderitis'—drawn from their experience across 100+ startups, with detailed installments promised.
Why it matters
Founders can use this catalog as a concrete self-diagnostic checklist: scan the list, flag which anti-patterns your current startup exhibits (e.g., 'analysis paralysis,' 'chasing the competition,' 'one-off customization'), and prioritise fixing the ones compounding fastest. The series promises tangible examples per anti-pattern, making it more actionable than generic startup advice.
Discussion angle
Pick 3-5 anti-patterns from the list that are most common in early-stage Malaysian startups (e.g., 'outsourcing your architecture,' 'myopic bootstrapping,' 'one-off customization') and share whether anyone in the group has lived through them.