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This webpage presents personal experiences and insights from the author's journey leading a tech startup. The information reflects subjective interpretations and shouldn't be considered professional advice. The views expressed are the author's own and don't necessarily represent the opinions of any mentioned companies or organizations. Readers should exercise their discretion and consult professionals before making decisions based on this content. The author isn't liable for any actions taken in reliance on the information provided. Please note that this content contains strong language and opinions which some readers may find offensive.
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<aside> 💡 “In the South Seas there is a Cargo Cult of people. During the war they saw airplanes land with lots of good materials, and they want the same thing to happen now. So they’ve arranged to make things like runways, to put fires along the sides of the runways, to make a wooden hut for a man to sit in, with two wooden pieces on his head like headphones and bars of bamboo sticking out like antennas—he’s the controller—and they wait for the airplanes to land. They’re doing everything right. The form is perfect. It looks exactly the way it looked before. But it doesn’t work. No airplanes land. So I call these things Cargo Cult Science, because they follow all the apparent precepts and forms of scientific investigation, but they’re missing something essential, because the planes don’t land.”
<aside> <img src="/icons/activity_yellow.svg" alt="/icons/activity_yellow.svg" width="40px" /> Figures: Images of Cargo Cultism The phenomenon that Prof. Feynman refers to.
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Prof. Feynman's analogy about Cargo Cult Science—where rituals mimic successful actions without grasping their underlying principles—struck a chord with me as I reflected on my journey leading a tech startup.
In 2015, after securing substantial seed funding for our deep learning and computer vision technology, we brought in a new management team. These individuals flaunted impressive MBAs from top schools—something they trumpeted incessantly—and boasted corporate pedigrees, claiming to have “founded and exited multiple companies” (utter bullshit!). We were convinced their supposed expertise would rocket us to success.
But we were wrong. What we encountered instead was a mindset that echoed the cargo cult mentality—a belief that mimicking the actions of success was enough to achieve it. In hindsight, several missteps nearly derailed us:
Our new team seemed to believe that as long as the technology was impressive, the market would follow. Instead of focusing on solving a real problem, they prioritized algorithm development and flashy demos. While this approach may have been effective in academic or research settings, it ignored the most critical factor: customer need.
This team adopted a "multi-pronged" strategy, simultaneously chasing multiple verticals without committing to any single focus. This approach diluted our efforts, stretched our resources, and led to few tangible results and zero revenue. Despite nearly exhausting our investor funds, this deluded troupe continued their charade, flush with the misguided notion that either a "Series A" funding round or an acquisition was imminent.
We had all the trappings of a successful startup—well-run board meetings, "GAAP-certified" financials, scrums, sprints, "demo days", and grandiose growth projections. But these were merely surface-level indicators. Beneath the facade, we lacked the one thing that mattered: a viable, revenue-generating product.
When it became clear we were running out of runway and had no sustainable business model, the team's response was to hold out for a buyout. This reliance on external salvation instead of internal course correction was the clearest sign that we'd lost touch with reality. In a cult-like fashion, we were “preparing to be acquired” (!) as if the leadership believed acquisition offers grew on trees.
An immature mind is childish but lacks a child's ability to learn. As our cash-out date loomed—with zero revenues—the team's reaction wasn't to adapt but to entrench themselves further. The more we urged them to change course, the more stubbornly they clung to their discredited approach. Their behavior grew increasingly cult-like, complete with a crafted victimhood narrative and secretive retreats. In cult-like fashion, they resorted to personal attacks against those of us calling out their nonsense. Like the child in the fable who points out the emperor's nakedness, some of us were vilified and ostracized for exposing the truth about our own emperor's lack of clothes.
Drama emperors have no clothes