How to Use Scrum to Avoid the #1 Cause of Startup Death

When I was working at a startup, my CEO was obsessed with scaling. He worried about how we’d handle millions—or even billions—of users, constantly discussing Memcache and autoscaling. The irony? A year later, we still had zero users.

Premature Scaling

Forbes lists premature scaling as the #1 cause of startup failure. It’s a common issue where teams focus too much on technical details, optimizing for traffic that hasn’t yet materialized. This often leads to over-engineered databases, incorrect indexing, or premature caching for nonexistent traffic. Ultimately, teams prioritize technology over understanding user needs.

Scrum to the Rescue?

Looking back, if we had used Scrum properly, we would have focused on getting users, not features. A more outcome-driven Sprint Goal, such as acquiring just 10 customers—or even 1—might not have saved us entirely, as the business model relied on partnerships, but it would have revealed problems sooner. Scrum would have shifted our focus from technical concerns to actual customers, allowing us to address real issues early on.

Scale as We Go

Scrum’s core principle is scaling only when necessary. It encourages teams to focus on what’s important right now through Sprint Goals and Product Backlog Items (PBIs). By iteratively developing and validating work, teams can scale based on real-world needs, not hypothetical future ones.

Scrum’s Definition of Done (DoD) plays a key role as the product matures. Once we have enough users, we integrate performance tests and scalability validations into every sprint. This ensures we only invest in scaling when it’s actually required, optimizing technical efforts where they matter most. With every new feature or modification, we use the DoD to address performance, ensuring scalability grows organically with the product.

Conclusion

Scaling too early can be fatal for startups. Scrum helps teams stay grounded by focusing on users and real-world needs, not hypothetical scalability. By following Scrum principles and scaling as we grow, startups can avoid the technical traps that lead to premature scaling and ultimately failure.

Read more: How to tell if a team is running fake Scrum?