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It's very unlikely the bugs killed those startups.

AmericanChopper 7y ago
Depends on how you classify bugs. If a bug is anytime your product doesn’t work the way it’s supposed to, then yeah, I’ve seen startups suffer massively from that. I worked with one that had 90% of new customers churn out in their first month (you might be able to guess, that company doesn’t exist any more). If you broaden your definition to include ‘problems with the code base that significantly slow down new features’, then I’ve seen even more startups die trying to release their ‘v2.0’. The thing about the ‘we’ll iterate on it later’ mentality is that your product has to be in pretty good shape to be able to benefit from small incremental improvements. If it’s a garbage fire then making the smallest changes turns into an arduous nightmare, that inevitably just ends up introducing even more bugs to your product. But to be fair, for as many startups as I’ve seen go out of business due to these problems, I’ve seen just as many stagnate into a state where they have just enough revenue to cover their small payroll, and remain in that state for a very long time.
- BoorishBears 7y ago
  What if I take bug to mean what it means? > A software bug is an error, flaw, failure or fault in a computer program or system that causes it to produce an incorrect or unexpected result, or to behave in unintended ways. 90% churn out rate is not a software bug... If you mean there was a software bug that was causing that, it sounds like they had a bug that was completely preventing them from providing value. It’s a given your product needs to be able to provide some sort of value. My point is people place much more emphasis on provided value and utility over frustration from bugs
  - AmericanChopper 7y ago
    But even if the app crashes every time it loads, that would meet your definition of a bug. I’ve never personally seen a single bug so bad that it killed a company, but I’ve seen products so riddled with bugs that they killed companies. An app with chronic stability issues? Those are bugs. Automated processes silently fail some times? Bugs. Interactive processes randomly fail sometimes? Bugs. I’ve seen plenty of companies with ideas that seemed decent fail because they were unable to deliver an adequately functional product, for the sort of reasons I mentioned above. All of which I’d consider bugs.
    - BoorishBears 7y ago
      I already addressed an app crashing every time it loads in another comment. My point wasn’t you can deliver an app that does nothing and succeed. My point was bugginess is not what kills most start ups. Lack of bugginess is not a moat. Your competitors will not automatically fail because your app is the most stable one.

Depends on how you classify bugs. If a bug is anytime your product doesn’t work the way it’s supposed to, then yeah, I’ve seen startups suffer massively from that. I worked with one that had 90% of new customers churn out in their first month (you might be able to guess, that company doesn’t exist any more). If you broaden your definition to include ‘problems with the code base that significantly slow down new features’, then I’ve seen even more startups die trying to release their ‘v2.0’. The thing about the ‘we’ll iterate on it later’ mentality is that your product has to be in pretty good shape to be able to benefit from small incremental improvements. If it’s a garbage fire then making the smallest changes turns into an arduous nightmare, that inevitably just ends up introducing even more bugs to your product. But to be fair, for as many startups as I’ve seen go out of business due to these problems, I’ve seen just as many stagnate into a state where they have just enough revenue to cover their small payroll, and remain in that state for a very long time.

BoorishBears 7y ago
What if I take bug to mean what it means? > A software bug is an error, flaw, failure or fault in a computer program or system that causes it to produce an incorrect or unexpected result, or to behave in unintended ways. 90% churn out rate is not a software bug... If you mean there was a software bug that was causing that, it sounds like they had a bug that was completely preventing them from providing value. It’s a given your product needs to be able to provide some sort of value. My point is people place much more emphasis on provided value and utility over frustration from bugs
- AmericanChopper 7y ago
  But even if the app crashes every time it loads, that would meet your definition of a bug. I’ve never personally seen a single bug so bad that it killed a company, but I’ve seen products so riddled with bugs that they killed companies. An app with chronic stability issues? Those are bugs. Automated processes silently fail some times? Bugs. Interactive processes randomly fail sometimes? Bugs. I’ve seen plenty of companies with ideas that seemed decent fail because they were unable to deliver an adequately functional product, for the sort of reasons I mentioned above. All of which I’d consider bugs.
  - BoorishBears 7y ago
    I already addressed an app crashing every time it loads in another comment. My point wasn’t you can deliver an app that does nothing and succeed. My point was bugginess is not what kills most start ups. Lack of bugginess is not a moat. Your competitors will not automatically fail because your app is the most stable one.