Perfectionism Is a Startup Founder’s Worst Enemy

A lot of startup founders get trapped in perfectionism. They justify this to themselves by referring to their good morals and standards. Their expectation of the ideal thing becomes the holy grail—they want to build something great, something meaningful, something that really works. But that mindset? It holds them back in getting really started.

I know this because I’ve been there. I used to be stuck in overplanning instead of overdoing. I had a thousand ideas, and instead of testing them, I kept refining them—thinking, rethinking, tweaking, overanalyzing. But no amount of thinking makes something real.

At some point, I realized: Perfectionism is just a rationalized form of procrastination.

The Perfectionism Trap: How It Becomes a Delusion

Here’s the logical problem with perfectionism in startup founders like myself:

• The more you think about a problem, the more ideas you generate.

• The more ideas you generate, the higher your expectations grow.

• The higher your expectations, the harder it is to execute—because now you have this massive, complex vision that feels impossible to achieve.

And just like that, you’re stuck. A dead-end street where nothing ever gets finished.

And worse? You start building on non-verified ideas. You convince yourself that certain things must be true, but they’re never tested in reality. So you keep stacking assumptions on top of assumptions… and before you know it, you’ve created a completely fictional version of what people actually want.

How I Became a suuper "Imperfectionist"

The best thing I ever learned as a developer programming software? Iteration. Step by step.

Start ridiculously small. Put something out there that’s way simpler than you think it should be. Then—use customer feedback to shape it. Every iteration adds value, every step brings you closer to something that actually works.

It’s way better to throw yourself against the wall (the market) and see what sticks than to sit in your head, imagining some perfect, untested thing. Because in reality? The market decides what’s perfect, not you.

Overdoing > Overthinking

Now, I don’t obsess over making things perfect before launch. I focus on starting, testing, and adapting. Overdoing is better than overthinking. Every step forward is worth more than ten steps in your head.

So if you’re stuck in perfectionism? Let it go. Ship something. Even if it’s small. Even if it’s flawed. Because the real startup killer isn’t imperfection—it’s never launching at all.