[fastball]

The entirety of this article (and their startup's failure) can be summed up by this one line:

> prospects didn't know [...] the problem we were solving

If "prospects" don't know what problem you're solving, 99% of the time that means they don't have the problem your product solves. And if that's true, they're not actually a prospect. Seems like a classic case of being a solution looking for a problem.

Also the author's nonsensical "circle of death" reminds me of the "Conjoined Triangles of Success" from Silicon Valley[1]. Except Silicon Valley is a parody, and I don't think this article is meant to be.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cB7dInljmO4

[tootie]

I think the relevant phrase here is a "solution in search of a problem". I understand exactly what their product was intended to do and have worked on a lot of design system projects before, but adoption rate has never really been a key metric of anything.