By Antonia Dean, Partner at Black Operator Ventures (Black Ops VC), an early stage VC firm Why Founders Who Build For Their Inner Circle Often Miss The Market Entirely When most founders start a company they turn to their immediate network and community for support. Whether it’s their friends telling them their idea is brilliant, or family members offering encouragement and sometimes even your first investment. These individuals want you to succeed, so it might make initial sense to go to them first. However, if you confuse support with customer demand, that becomes a problem. As a partner at an early-stage venture capital firm who invests in first-time founders, it’s one of the most common and costly mistakes in entrepreneurship that I see happen. The people closest to you are often the least reliable indicators of whether you’ve built something customers actually want. Friends and family are not your market. Sure experiences that you’ve had growing up could spark business ideas...