"Cash on hand is just one important variable in a startup’s life, but it’s not necessarily the most important. What matters most is the number of iterations the company has left."

Gotta admit, I appreciate it when attention-grabbing headlines are followed up by the first line or two actually describing what the post is about. It's a good one-two combo.

The article seems to be (primarily) framed in the context of a startup gasping for a last breath of air. It seems like this would also be tremendously valuable advice for a company when times are good.

Furthermore, it's thought provoking to consider the beneficiaries of US federal bailout money in this context.

A startup usually feels that way until the moment the acquirer's check cashes.

Thomas J. Watson Sr. (1874-1956) ran IBM for many years and was famously quoted by Charles Westrill "Would you like the formula for success?" "Double your rate of failure." I hadn't made the connection to startup runway until Eric Ries did the math in this post.

Interesting. What if you do hit the right business model right out of the garage? Is that considered a bad thing?

I think that comes under the heading of "nice problem to have".

I guess a related question is "how/when do you decide to iterate - i.e. change your direction/customer focus/etc"