> lack of vision and direction.
I've seen this play out more than once during my career and startups with otherwise great concepts end up treading water because the founding team or leadership fails to execute.
Being a charismatic sales person might work wonders in terms of attracting funding and talent but it's not enough if you lack the capability to follow through with it. I'd wager that lots of the latest batch of startups that want do-it-all 'product engineers' will collapse for the exact same reason: delegating vision.
PP has been around for over a decade and has successfully built a pretty global community as a non profit. Here's an attempt to map out that community:
I've been a "shipper," all my adult life.
It's always been my job to Make Things Happen, as opposed to "Make Things Look Like They're Happening."
A lot of "Making Things Happen" is boring and un-sexy, but absolutely crucial.
I'm always surprised, when I run into folks that are awesome at schmoozing and getting folks to come to the party (I'm not so good at that stuff), and may be extremely creative and talented, but lack the follow-through, to make their dreams a reality.
It's usually when folks like that, team up with folks like me, that magic happens. Rarely, you have it in one person.