Poor negotiating skills can doom even the most promising startup.

As many as 90 percent of all startups fail. And one of the major obstacles to their success is the inability of entrepreneurs to engage in proper negotiating techniques. That’s according to Samuel Dinnar, a mediator, consultant and venture capital investor who also serves as an instructor at Harvard Law School’s Program on Negotiation. Dinnar is the co-author, with Lawrence Susskind, of Entrepreneurial Negotiation: Understanding and Managing the Relationships That Determine Your Entrepreneurial Success. The book lays out eight common mistakes that entrepreneurs tend to make. It also highlights multiple scenarios in which pitch meetings with investors went awry. On this episode, Dinnar discusses how entrepreneurs can prepare themselves for the surprises that inevitably crop up in negotiations. And he answers the question of whether the typical entrepreneur, who is often highly individualistic and not always given to compromise, can embrace the elements of negotiation and blaze a path to business success. Hosted by Bob Bowman, Managing Editor of SupplyChainBrain.

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Show notes:

Dinnar and Susskind’s book, Entrepreneurial Negotiation.