[fragmede]

Problem is, all of those can be true, and the startup still fails to find market fit, or traction, or pivot exactly right. Or something happens 3 years down the line that results in the company failing for no internally foreseeable reason.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions, as they say, but that road is build with some really solid engineering (it being so hot there and all), and we only really hear about the successful exits which reeks of survivor bias. The well run companies just fade away in our collective consciousness. I can name Uber and Lyft off the top of my head, no problem, but their defunct competitors? I'd have to look them up to name more than... Flywheel, I think it was?