KILL MY STARTUP

The brutal truth about why startups die

KILL
MY
STARTUP

Why most startups fail, and how to build one that doesn't.

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By Adrian Dunkley · Available now · Paperback & Digital

What's inside

Four parts. Twenty-three chapters. One uncomfortable conversation with your startup.

It opens with The Kill Session, a meeting that pays for itself, then walks you through the autopsy of why startups die, the warning signs you keep ignoring, what actually works, and how to tell the difference between quitting and killing.

Part I

The Autopsy

Why startups die, named, ranked, and cause-of-death tagged.

  • The Idea Killed You First
  • You Were The Customer
  • Building Before Selling
  • The Vanity Trap
  • Co-Founder Cancer
  • Hiring Like A Real Company
  • Pivots That Pretend To Be Strategy
  • The Slow Death Of Running Out Of Money
Part II

The Warning Signs

The quiet signals founders keep mistaking for good news.

  • When Your Customers Go Quiet
  • When Your Team Stops Pushing Back
  • When Growth Comes Easy
  • When Investors Get Too Excited
  • When You Stop Hating Your Product
Part III

What Actually Works

The unsexy operating habits that compound into a company.

  • Distribution Beats Everything
  • Cash Flow As Your Compass
  • Customer Obsession As An Operating System
  • Sell First, Build Second
  • The Boring Stuff Compounds
  • AI Is A Lever, Not A Plan
  • Your First 100, First 1,000, First Million
Part IV

When To Quit

The hardest chapter no one writes, and how founders actually recover.

  • The Difference Between Quitting And Killing
  • How Founders Actually Recover
  • Building Something That Lasts

About the author

Adrian Dunkley

Founder, operator, and unrepentant truth-teller. Adrian has built, scaled, and buried enough startups to write a book about it, so he did. Kill My Startup is the post-mortem he wishes someone had handed him on day one.

adriandunkley.net

"Know how it dies, and you can stop it from dying. That's the whole job." Adrian Dunkley

Ready for the brutal truth?

Available now on Amazon in paperback and digital. Read it before your next pitch.

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Tap. Read. Don't die.