It’s hard to build a startup. Around 90% fail, usually in the first five years. Even venture-backed startups never earn a return 75% of the time. This presents a dilemma: Do you risk your time and money building a startup from scratch or acquire one with a proven track record?

Failory interviewed founders of over 80 failed startups and found the most common reasons for failing were product-market fit (34%), marketing (22%) and teams (18%). Why spend a fortune and years of your life overcoming these challenges when you could acquire a startup that’s already conquered them?

​That said, acquiring or building depends on whether you’re a builder or scaler. You might build if that’s what you love and where your expertise lies. However, if you’re a scaler, you should acquire a startup that dovetails with your skill-set and lets you sync and scale with ease.