feature creep

Definition

The continuous addition of new features to a product beyond its original scope, usually resulting in bloated, confusing software that pleases no one. The disease killing promising MVPs since software began.

Example Usage

We started with a simple to-do app, but feature creep turned it into a project management, CRM, and meditation platform that nobody wants.

Origin

Software development terminology, emerged in 1980s project management discussions

Fun Fact

Feature creep is the primary reason many startups lose their initial product-market fit—they iterate away from what worked.

Source: Software development and product management terminology

Related Terms

Advanced

carve-out

Reserved portion of an acquisition's proceeds specifically allocated to employees or specific shareholders, ensuring they benefit even if the waterfall would otherwise drown them. Exit sharing mandated by negotiation or generosity.

🚀 Startup / VC

Intermediate

dilution

The soul-crushing moment when a startup issues new shares, and existing shareholders watch their ownership percentage shrink faster than a wool sweater in a hot dryer. While you still own the same number of shares, you now own a smaller slice of the pie—assuming the company actually grows enough to justify the dilution. It's the price founders pay for other people's money, and the reason early employees cry into their vested options.

🚀 Startup / VC

Advanced

recycle provision

A fund agreement clause that allows GPs to reinvest early returns back into new deals rather than distributing them to LPs, extending the fund's effective deployment capacity. A controversial provision that LPs love to scrutinize because it delays their returns.

🚀 Startup / VC

Intermediate

flat round

A financing round raised at the same valuation as the previous round, suggesting a company has neither advanced nor declined—essentially treading water while burning cash. More diplomatically acceptable than a down round but almost as concerning to investors.

🚀 Startup / VC

Intermediate

Vesting

The process by which employees gradually earn their stock options over time, designed to keep people from taking the equity and running. It's a four-year golden handcuff that makes quitting feel like leaving money on the table, even when the money is imaginary.

🚀 Startup / VC

Beginner

grayhair

An experienced executive or advisor brought into a startup to add operational credibility and grown-up supervision to a young founding team. Think adult daycare, but for unicorn hopefuls.

🚀 Startup / VC

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