Tech debt, whether creating it or paying it is a critical function of the business. Where this gets messy is when an engineering organization feels they own or

Tech debt, whether creating it or paying it is a critical function of the business. Where this gets messy is when an engineering organization feels they own or somehow should prioritize the debt. This is especially true of paying it. In every case that I've been involved in or had explicit oversight in creating tech debt has been when customer and revenue obligations are needed to be met. It's very rare in startups to have artificial or made up deadlines. I'm sure they exist at larger orgs, but as a startup executive, I can say with confidence that everything is constantly on the line, each day is critical, and so shipping product is paramount. Of course, you have to pay that tech debt back at some point, but this is a business decision. It may turn out the business needs to kill that product or alter it in such a way that paying back debt is useless.