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I worked for a startup that had basically the right idea but proper execution took so long we ran out of runway. The first iteration of the product was built in
by kosma 10y ago
I worked for a startup that had basically the right idea but proper execution took so long we ran out of runway. The first iteration of the product was built in an extremely haphazard, cowboy way - and took months, if not years, to refactor into something stable, usable and crash-proof. By the time the product was operational, the company was bankrupt. We simply hemorrhaged money until we bled to death.
As someone else pointed out - technological debt is not a cause per se; it's an indication of some deeper problem - usually of human, not technological, nature.
- JoeAltmaier 10y agoThat may be a 'startup problem'. Do it cheap and coyboy because, runway. Assuming the money will come along later to do it all again. But that happens (lots of money later) only if you get bought out. Not if you have to make it on your own. So any business plan that includes the steps "A miracle occurs" and then "We get bought out" is probably going to suffer that fate?
- kosma 10y agoEven if the miracle occurs and you get bought out and get shittons of money thrown at you, you've already built a company with a "fake it till you make it" culture. Even if you get to hire great new engineers to build your product the right way, your existing team is a ragtag bunch of amateurs who don't know how to build things properly and block any attempts to improve the status quo. I've been there. You can't build castles on the foundation of mud. You'd have to throw it all out and start again - and that's a recipe for disaster.