NOTEBOOK: Brian Hemeseth rounds up his biggest failures at Accelerate DSM

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Few people like talking about their failures the way Brian Hemesath does. “This is an extremely hard topic to talk about,” Hemesath acknowledged on Thursday, as a speaker at Accelerate DSM.

He took on the taboo anyway, listing the most common failures experienced by himself and the companies he works with at the Global Insurance Accelerator.

  • Founder divorce: A breakdown in communication between startup founders can be just as difficult as the end of a relationship or marriage, Hemesath said. 
  • Along those lines, write up a buy-sell agreement for when your business will end ahead of time, and consider how you may feel toward your co-founder if the “divorce” gets messy. Plan ahead to make things easier. 
  • Don’t let your financials slide — use a third-party auditor regularly or hire a bookkeeper. Those records will be a valuable judge of your company’s worth during sale negotiations, Hemesath said.
  • Don’t neglect to get a good lawyer for your business — and understand your own contracts.
  • Innovation is listening to your customers — don’t ignore their feedback.
  • Avoid serial entrepreneurship and put your focus into building your business.
  • Lastly, don’t send a pizza to a client’s home address. But stay calm if you have done so: You’ll get a laugh, or a conference anecdote, from it someday.

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