10 fatal assumptions

In providing feedback to my MBA entrepreneurship students, I went looking for information on market sizing assumptions.

I didn’t find what I was looking for, but I did find another interesting document, from Purdue University’s extension program. The note on “Fatal Business Planning Assumptions” by Cole Ehmke of Purdue offers a list of 10 common but flawed assumptions made by new ventures.

Although he’s in agricultural economics, the first three would resonate with any tech entrepreneur or investor:

1. We have no competition
2. All we need is 2% of the market
3. Our product will sell itself

I would love to see a “10 most common tech startup mistakes” list, but for now this is a suitable cautionary list.