I have been working at startups for the past 6+ years, and in each role, I was the first person in the IT department and helped build it from the ground up. Four of the start-ups I worked at were approaching or in their growth stage. And startup when this means chaos if there isn't a baseline of IT Infrastructure, policies, procedures, and systems already put in place.

Here are 11 common IT mistakes of startups :

👀 Allowing employees to use and save work data on personal devices, then suddenly retracting upon seeking ISO 27001 or SOC 2 to meet customer demands quickly

💻 **Allowing founding engineers to use their work laptop for personal use, **AND agreeing to let them keep the laptop for personal use as part of their comp package or contract

🏃‍♀️ Knowledge of employees stealing laptops or work devices and not enforcing any consequences

🐋 Allowing a mixed environment of Linux, Windows, and Mac… then not being able to afford software to manage the mixed environment upon seeking compliance

🗝 Waiting to implement MFA until funding and growth

🤷🏾‍♀️No baseline system for onboarding and offboarding

📝 Listing admins and passwords of SaaS applications and database credentials in public places or

🛠Outsourcing various IT MSPs and Vendors, not keeping track of who is managing what, not keeping contracts, nor any form of access control

**🧾 **No inventory or simple system for tracking assets, laptops, receipts, warranties, etc

🎟 Being resistant to and not investing in a ticketing system… waiting until the company is over 80-100 employees and support individuals are overwhelmed

🗂 Not initiating a knowledgebase or keeping any form of documentation