> There are zero products that go directly from mockups to success. It's relatively easy to knock off something that already exists and is proven to work. Buil

> There are zero products that go directly from mockups to success. It's relatively easy to knock off something that already exists and is proven to work. Building a knockoff is a relatively linear process. The challenges have already been solved and the work that needs to be done is clear to all involved. Creating a new product is significantly less linear and a lot of budget gets burned because of that. The time of engineers, designers, project managers and QA all cost money. Aligning them to the same (non-obvious) vision therefore costs money. There are additional real costs every time the plan changes even slightly (scope creep, customer feedback, founder waffling, etc). "No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy" - Helmuth von Moltke