I think this is a transient issue. When you're in growth mode you make a huge series of hacks to just keep things running and then when you leave.... well, it's

I think this is a transient issue. When you're in growth mode you make a huge series of hacks to just keep things running and then when you leave.... well, it's a problem. But if the business is robust, and lives beyond you, what replaces your work is better documented, better tested, and maintainable. That's the dream. Obviously there are companies that sink between v1 and v2, but that's life. Fundamentally I think the cloud business is robust, it's a fundamentally reasonable way of organising things (for enough people), which is why it attracts customers despite being arguably more expensive. I've been in this situation in much smaller scales, and yes, you'll see massive drop in productivity but that's the cost of going from prototype to product.