Most startups fail from indigestion, not starvation

The story we tell is that companies die because they run out of money or nobody wanted the thing. In my experience they far more often die of having said yes to too much. Three customer segments, two platforms, a rewrite, a partnership, all in one year. Everything is half-built and the team is exhausted and nobody can point at the one thing the company is supposed to be excellent at. Focus is not a productivity technique, it is the actual strategy, and almost nobody can hold it when money is available.