[lukevdp]

I agree with you that you have to work for the company objectives.

I think at a start-up the correct decision early on is to take on a bunch of tech debt, but then pay it down as the horizon of the company expands.

Early on, you need to iterate fast on a few key flows and make a product that people want, but once you get product market fit, things like scalability and reliability start mattering a lot more and you need to pay down the debt.

The issue comes when the company's objective is actually to build a reliable, stable, long term product, but it is still in startup mindset of "ship this feature by yesterday at all costs", and expects the rest to come for free.