Panelists at today's Zino forum.

Startups can crumble for any number of reasons. But at today's Zino Zillionaire Investment Forum a group of experts laid out what they think are the most common pitfalls. Moderator Stephen Graham, a partner with Fenwick & West, got things rolling by asking the four panelists: How have you seen companies make a mess of things?

Their responses, along with Graham's own list, should provide a little bit of guidance for those trying to navigate the tough currents of the startup world.

Geir Hansen, senior relationship manager at Silicon Valley Bank: "By trying to go it alone. Nobody knows everything, so if you don't know it, make sure you surround yourself with either ... team members who can fill the gaps or an advisory board who can fill those gaps."

Trish Dziko, chief executive of the Technology Access Foundation: "My lens is always going to be on who are you going to hire in the future? Who are you going to hire to fill out your staff after you get your round of funding? What does your company look like five, ten years from now."

Hugh Campbell, Cascadia Capital: "As an investment bank we tend to think more on the later-stages, and the exit side of things. I think one mistake that we see people make sometimes is not thinking enough about those potential strategic buyers.... Everyone knows who their strategic buyers might be, but we spend a lot of time advising companies if they have the timeand the runway of several years or five years until exit to go beyond thinking about just who they are, but also thinking about where are these companies going strategically, what are their cultures like and who do you need to know within those organizations and how can you set your company up for that exit."

Ric Merrifield, principal architect at Microsoft: "To name a company that I was a part of that tended not as well as it should of was Onyx Software, a customer relationship management software company in the late 90s and into 2000. And I think the primary mistake that was made was not really understanding what it took beyond just having a great product. I still believe that Onyx had the best CRM in the market. They misjudged how much runway they had to really be the number one. Siebel became the number one because they realized that the timeline was short to become number one. Things were moving very fast in those days.... I think a lot of the decisions Onyx made were smart by today's standards, they were just wrong by the standards because things were moving at a very different pace."

And one bonus tip from Hansen: "A lot of companies perhaps don't spend enough time talking to potential customers about whether they would buy their product or service, and if tehy do they don't always remember to ask them if they would pay for it, and if so, how much."

And here's Graham's list of six key problems that hold up startups:

--"You assume that the market is out there, and lo and behold there isn't one."

--"Ignoring competition."

--"Not being selective with respect to your investors. Most of us eventually learn that not all money is created equal, and really thinking about what the money is bringing to the table in addition to the capital is something you have to keep in mind."

--"Making informal promises of equity."

--"Ignoring IP issues."

--"Obsessing over valuation. Valuation is obviously important but you have to look at that in balance."

What tips did the panel miss? And what are the biggest problems you have encountered in building your company?