I saw it nearly happen with a dot-com I worked at. "Architectural releases" (e.g. "just cleaning up technical debt") provide nothing but risk for customers and

I saw it nearly happen with a dot-com I worked at. "Architectural releases" (e.g. "just cleaning up technical debt") provide nothing but risk for customers and an opportunity for competition to catch up. In my mind, this is what is meant by phrases like "excellent startup teams are good at execution". They can ride the line between getting features done without becoming bogged down in their own code. It's easy to hack something out. It's easy to spend all your time making in an architectural masterpiece. It's really hard to balance that in a way that allows for continued growth.