

Premature Scaling Kills Startups - sliggity
http://bostinnovation.com/2011/09/01/premature-scaling-kills-startups-the-genome-data/

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F_J_H
One of my favorite Drucker quotes:

There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done
at all. \- P. Drucker

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cppsnob
This article is NOT talking about technology. It's talking about growth in
team size and expenditure.

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spxdcz
The original report/research does mention technology though (I've just been
referencing it for a section of a book I'm writing) - it talks about
"premature scaling" in about five different areas, which includes developing
non-essential features and devoting time to technical scalability before the
app has evolved to fit the market.

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yesimahuman
Is it premature scaling or is it forgetting you are building a product for
people, not just giving yourself an excuse to code and play with cool
technology.

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j_baker
...except that's not what the author is talking about. He's talking about
scaling the company (including the product for people) too early.

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yesimahuman
> 70% of startups scaled prematurely along some dimension. While this number
> seemed high, this may go a long way towards explaining the 90% failure rate
> of startups

My point was for the younger startups that are surely part of his failure
group. They scale their systems instead of their product because it's easier.
You're right though, he talks more about larger, more mature startups.

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kubindurion
conclusion: never scale before you have a gun pointed at your head

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pointyhat
It also kills companies who assume that their "next greatest product" is going
to be massively successful and start employing every new piece of technology,
completely forgetting their core competency.

Bitter, I am.

