Back when I was working as an Tech consultant I was faced with a very basic problem - we were running out of time, budget was fixed and scope could not be reduced (on the contrary, "enhancements" were being added). I was new to the industry and I was not sure how to handle this scenario.
Thats when my then manager pulled me in and gave me the "gyaan" of four wheels.
[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="279" caption="Four Wheels"][/caption]
If you turn any single wheel, say scope and don't wish to change the budget or the timeline, the quality will suffer ... I applied this to numerous projects, mostly to allow "customers" to increase the scope and convincing them to pay extra for it. The objective was always to keep the customer happy, if the customer is willing to pay - hey lets add on the scope and deliver it by adding more people or extending the timeline if required. In reality, it was the "Quality" that used to suffer.
Last night, I was reading "Getting Real" - talks about the similar problem - but with a different approach - Fix Time and Budget, Flex Scope
As a startup you are always constrained with time and money - so in a way they are already fixed, you can never never compromise on the quality and since you own the scope - cut it down - just keep only what is relevant - the core of your startup. Based on user feedback keep adding stuff later. So Less is More and Smaller Scope is the way to go
If you try to run your startup with the "job" mindset (More is More $$ and Smaller is Less $$) sooner or later you will end up in troubled waters!
This change in mindset is very critical to startup's success.