Startups die for one reason only, they run out of money. It’s that simple. Avoid running out of money and it will never die. Large term leases and obligations == debt. That awesome shiny office for $50/mo for 3 years is debt, that 3 year datacenter deal is debt. Be really really really paranoid about signing any long term contracts. If 20% of your spend is contractual, it can kill you. Large teams kill runways. Each person needs to be justified by profit or revenue. If you have 18 months of runway, 6-12 months you will need to raise or be profitable to survive. If in 6 months you aren’t profitable, you will need to cut by 33% to extend runway to 18. At month 9 that’s 50%. Leases, and contracts can’t be cut. So if 20% of your spend is contractual at month 6 you are cutting 50% of the team. At month 9, it’s 70%, or you are basically on your last shot on goal.