A startups foundation cannot be fixed

• The beginning of a company is a unique and critical period.
• The decisions made at the very start of a company's life have a disproportionate impact on its future.
• Bad decisions made early on, such as choosing the wrong partners or hiring the wrong people, are very difficult to correct later on.
• It may take a crisis on the order of bankruptcy before anyone will even try to correct them.
• Therefore, a founder's most important job is to get the first things right, because you cannot build a great company on a flawed foundation.