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The way we've defined premature scaling, "making something users don't want" is included. For example, on the customer interaction metrics, which is what is use
by bjoernlasseh 15y ago
The way we've defined premature scaling, "making something users don't want" is included. For example, on the customer interaction metrics, which is what is used for "actual stage" a startup would be in the discovery or validation stages (stage 1 or 2). On the behavioral stage if they're making something people don't want, they're probably focused on streamlining their product or making it more scalable, which is a stage 3, or efficiency stage action. This would cause the startup to show up as a Behavioral Stage 3 / Actual Stage 2 and be labeled as premature scaling, just not the drastic kind, that for example WebVan exhibited — "Behavioral Stage 4 / Actual Stage 1". They had a team that was completely scaled up without even having shipped their product.
- pg 15y agoIf I were you I'd just use words in the way they're ordinarily used.
- bjoernlasseh 15y ago:) - I guess we can still improve on simplicity.
- amirmc 15y agoIf this is meant to be academic research (and I get the feeling it is), then it's unlikely they'd be able to use words as they're ordinarily used. Terms used will have to be clearly defined and stated in order to avoid confusion and misinterpretation (unless you're suggesting that such definitions already exist). Unfortunately, this doesn't make it easy to discuss things outside the research field.
- SoftwareMaven 15y agoI'm not sure how else they could term it if they want a consistent label for all stages. Colloquially, it would be "they got too big for their britches", but that doesn't come across well in a study. It would probably be better, though, to have phase-specific terms. It would probably make it easier to identify with each phase.
- bfe 15y agoGiven the mention of Webvan and the sheer number of startups in their study, it would seem their sample group does include a significant cohort from the Bubble. Trying to derive generalized rules governing startup outcomes is tough when those rules inherently keep changing.
- dirtyaura 15y agoWebvan is the first example of failed startup in Steve Blank's Four Steps to Epiphany. I think Startup Genome project was heavily influenced by Blank's book, so it might just that, a familiar example, not a data point.
- maxmarmer 15y agoThat's correct. All startups in our dataset we're at least active between Feb 2010 and May 2010 when we started collecting data.