Here lie hundreds of startups that had the right idea, the wrong execution and a terminal case of overthinking.
Their MVPs were beautiful. Their pitch decks were airtight. Their Notion boards had nested folders labeled “vision.”
But none of it mattered.
Because they never shipped something people could actually use.
This is your guided tour through the MVP graveyard.
A cautionary romp through the ruins of would-be unicorns. And a tactical guide for how to NOT be a tombstone.
Let’s exhume the bodies.
Grave #1: Feature creep corpse
Name: TodoWhale
Founded: January
Died: March
Cause of death: Too many features, zero focus
TodoWhale wanted to be the “Notion meets Slack meets Asana meets your therapist.”
Their MVP had:
- Mood tracking
- AI-generated affirmations
- Chat integration
- Calendar syncing
- A Pomodoro timer
You know what it didn’t have? A reason to exist.
What they should have done…
- Killed 80% of the roadmap
- Shipped one core job: daily task capture with reminders
- Tested with 10 users
Because every extra feature is a delay. And every delay is a chance to die.
GRAVE #2: Design-first, dev-later disaster
Name: Canvasly
Founded: April
Died: July
Cause of death: Built a brand before a backend
- The branding was impeccable. They had:
- A high-concept logo
- A 47-page style guide
- Brand values like “Empathy” and “Visual Flow”
- A billboard in Brooklyn
The product? Still in Figma.
What they should have done…
- Launched a working prototype in 3 weeks
- Saved $25K in design fluff
- Validated interest before spending a dollar on paid ads
Brand is seasoning. Product is the meal.
GRAVE #3: Ghost MVP
Name: GhostBoard
Founded: Last October
Died: Ongoing
Cause of death: Never shipped. Ever.
Every week, the founder swore they were “close.” Just one more onboarding tweak. One more polish round. One more user flow to test.
The product hasn’t launched. The team has drifted. The founder is now a LinkedIn thought leader.
- What they should have done…
- Cut scope to any shippable thing
- Forced a public beta deadline
- Put the founder in a Slack with real users and said: “Go!”
You can’t iterate on nothing.
GRAVE #4: MVP by committee
Name: CrowdShark
Founded: 2022
Died: Slowly
Cause of death: 9 co-founders, 0 decisions
Every product decision required alignment. Design debates lasted weeks. Roadmap meetings needed quorum. Nothing ever launched because no one wanted to risk being wrong.
What they should have done…
- Appointed one product dictator
- Built to user needs, not consensus
- Launched something controversial (but useful)
Alignment is a privilege. Shipping is survival.
GRAVE #5: Cursed Code MVP
Name: QuickSpark
Founded: In haste
Died: In pain
Cause of death: Spaghetti architecture from day one
QuickSpark launched fast. Faster than expected. The problem? The codebase was a Rube Goldberg machine built in PHP, Ruby, and pure chaos.
Every bug fix created 3 new bugs. No one could onboard. The dev quit. Then the company quit.
What they should have done…
- Started with scalable, modular architecture
- Built with future maintainability in mind
- Offered long-term dev support post-launch
Launch fast, yes. But launch clean, too.
What every tombstone has in common
These aren’t just funny fictional startup fails.
They share tragic DNA:
- Overbuilt instead of testable
- Prioritized polish over utility
- Avoided feedback from real users
- Delayed launch in favor of imaginary perfection
You don’t get infinite lives. Every week you delay is a chance for someone else to ship your idea first.
Keeps your MVP alive
Don’t build haunted houses. Build scrappy, working, real-ass products that users can try, buy and break.
The right approach:
- Start with one valuable action
- Build just enough to test it
- Launch something ugly, fast
- Fix it with feedback, not fantasy
- You don’t need a masterpiece. You need momentum.
You’ve scrolled through the dead. Now choose life.
Hire TechTeems. We’ll help you hire a team to build the version of your idea that actually ships.
Because the scariest place for your startup is the graveyard of almost.