Digital Project Abandonment Crisis: Deadweight Loss in Plain Sight

The most cited figure in startup failure research comes from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: roughly 20% of businesses fail in their first year, and about 65% within ten years. For technology companies specifically, CB Insights' analysis of over 110 startup post-mortems found that 42% failed because there was no genuine market need for what they built. Running out of cash was second at 29% — but as the report noted, cash problems typically trail the market need problem by months. The techno