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The 5 Most Expensive Money Mistakes I Made as a Startup Founder
So you don’t have to
There’s a special kind of pain that comes with realizing you lit thousands of dollars on fire trying to “scale” a startup that wasn’t ready. I’ve been there. More than once.
As the founder of OutreachGenius — and after a few failed startups before that — I’ve learned a lot of money lessons the hard (and expensive) way. Here are five of the most painful ones I wish someone had drilled into me earlier.
1. Spending money to grow before earning the right to grow
In the early days, I threw tens of thousands at Facebook ads, contractors, and agencies trying to “scale.”
Big mistake.
When you’re still finding product-market fit, the only thing money should buy is time — not growth.
You’re not scaling a proven engine. You’re building one. And if you dump fuel on a half-built engine, you don’t go faster — you just make a bigger mess.
Lesson: Use your money to extend your runway. Keep testing. Buy time. Not traffic.
