First, a Story, or two

In the early 2010s, Magic Leap captivated the tech world with its ambitious vision for augmented reality. Backed by billions in funding from companies like Google and Alibaba, it promised a revolutionary AR headset that would change the way people interacted with digital content. The problem? Magic Leap wasn’t just trying to build a better AR device—it wanted to redefine how humans experience reality itself.

Instead of focusing on a single killer application or perfecting the core hardware, the company attempted to tackle everything all at once: proprietary optics, a new software eco-system, a custom operating system, and a full-scale content platform. Years passed, hundreds of millions were spent, and while competitors like Microsoft’s HoloLens and even Apple’s Vision Pro made incremental, targeted progress, Magic Leap struggled under the weight of its grand ambitions. By the time it finally released a product, it failed to live up to expectations, and the company had to pivot away from consumers entirely.

Magic Leap didn’t fail because it lacked vision—it failed because it tried to boil the ocean.

Another example. In 2011, Color Labs launched with one of the most hyped startup debuts in Silicon Valley history. Backed by $41 million in funding before even releasing a product, Color aimed to completely redefine social media by creating a location-based photo-sharing network that would dynamically connect users based on proximity.

The problem? It was trying to solve too many complex challenges at once. Instead of focusing on a simple, engaging user experience, Color attempted to build a revolutionary social graph, an advanced AI-driven photo categorization system, and a new way for users to interact in real-time—all before proving product-market fit.

The result? A confusing, overly complex app that nobody understood or used. Despite the massive funding, Color Labs never found a core audience, and within two years, the company collapsed, selling off its remaining assets to Apple in a fire sale.

What It Is

“Boiling the ocean” is an anti-pattern in which startups attempt to tackle an impossibly large or complex problem(s) all at once, spreading themselves too thin and failing to deliver meaningful progress.

Startups fall into this trap for several reasons:

• Overambition and arrogance – Founders want to change the world and aim too broadly instead of focusing on achievable, measurable, milestones. It’s easier, especially for highly technical founders, to just stay in “builder” mode being heads-down on a fun project than it is to actually get the product to market
• Investor Pressure – Big visions attract big funding, but when founders feel compelled to deliver too much too soon, they lose focus. Investors are sometimes part of the problem – pushing the company too go big or go home.
• Fear of Competition – Trying to solve everything at once to prevent competitors from filling the gaps. It helps avoid having to “chase the competition”
• Unrealistic Technological Scope – Underestimating the difficulty of building multiple breakthrough technologies simultaneously. This is a pitfall I see sometimes when the founding team is very engineering heavy, or engineering takes over the business.
• Failure to Prioritize – Simple put – When everything is a priority, nothing is. One feature has to be more important than another, and if they all have the same importance it means you haven’t done a good enough job understanding what matters most.

The result? A company that lacks focus, burns through capital, and struggles to gain traction in any one area.

Why It Matters

Boiling the ocean could be a death sentence for most startups because of their inherent constraints:

• Limited Resources – Startups have small teams, finite capital, and limited time to prove themselves. Spreading too thin means nothing gets done well.
• Delayed Execution – Attempting to tackle everything all at once leads to bloated timelines, slow iteration, and missed market opportunities.
• Increased Complexity – The more ambitious the scope, the harder it is to maintain focus, align teams, and execute efficiently.
• Failure to Deliver MVP – Without a clear MVP (Minimum Viable Product), startups struggle to test hypotheses, attract early adopters, and gain traction.
• Burnout & Team Frustration – Engineers, designers, and product teams get demoralized when progress feels slow and unfocused.

History is full of examples of companies that tried to do too much at once and collapsed under their own weight. Theranos, for example, promised a blood-testing revolution but attempted to engineer technology far beyond what was feasible within their timeline, ultimately leading to scandal and collapse.

Meanwhile, the most successful startups—Amazon, Tesla, Google—started small, iterated, and expanded. Jeff Bezos launched Amazon as an online bookstore before moving into other categories. Tesla focused on one premium car (the Roadster) before expanding into mass-market models. Google started with search before conquering advertising, email, and cloud computing.

Diagnosis

How do you know if your startup is falling into the “boiling the ocean” trap? Ask yourself:

• Are we trying to solve too many big problems at once?
• Is our product roadmap filled with major projects that will take years to materialize?
• Are we constantly pivoting or expanding scope without shipping anything meaningful?
• Do investors, employees, or customers struggle to clearly articulate what we do?
• Do we lack a clear MVP that we can launch and test quickly?

If you answer “yes” to multiple questions, you’re likely taking on too much at once.

Misdiagnosis

Not every big vision is bad—after all, some of the greatest companies started with moonshot ideas. The key distinction is whether a startup is tackling its vision in a structured, iterative way or trying to do everything at once.

• Good ambition: SpaceX had a massive goal—getting humans to Mars. But instead of trying to build everything at once, it started with small, incremental progress: launching satellites, building reusable rockets, and developing a sustainable business model before attempting interplanetary travel.
• Bad ambition: Juicero raised over $100M to “reinvent” juicing but over-engineered a complex machine for a problem that didn’t exist. Customers quickly realized they could just squeeze the juice packs by hand—rendering the entire product useless.

The key difference? The best startups execute their vision through iteration and prioritization, while companies that fail often try to solve everything at once without proving their core value.

Refactored Solutions

If you feel your company might be boiling the ocean, how do you fix it?

1. Define and Prioritize the MVP – Identify the smallest, simplest version of your product that can deliver value and prove your concept. If you are already in the market with a product and expanding it keep the MVP mindset in mind with subsequent product launch. Build and launch only what you need to make the measurable impact you need to make and learn the lessons that your company needs before expanding score.
2. Break Down the Big Vision – Think in phases rather than tackling everything at once. Start small, test, iterate, and expand. Eventually, you will get to it all, but every phase has to independently stand on its merits to help justify investing in the next phase
3. Limit Scope Creep – Be ruthless about saying no to ideas that don’t directly contribute to your core focus. Moonshots and pies in the sky can be sexy, but at times they can be the entrepreneurs worse enemy
4. Ship Something Quickly – The sooner you get real user feedback, the sooner you know what actually matters. Quality aside (definitely don’t launch products you are not proud of), the faster you get out there the shorter the path to getting to an A+ product.
5. Ensure Team Alignment – Everyone should be clear on the company’s immediate priorities and milestones. Focus on the short term and the ultimate vision. Mid-term can be fuzzy.
6. Use Constraints to Your Advantage – Limited resources force better decisions—use them as a guide to stay focused. Reiterate the same with your team. Startups are here to solve problems big companies can’t solve because they do better under pressure and with limited resources.

If Magic Leap had started by perfecting one core AR feature instead of trying to reinvent reality all at once, it might have succeeded. If Quibi had launched a free version or tested its content model before committing to a $1.75B gamble, it might have pivoted in time. The key is focus, execution, and iteration.

When It Could Help

Are there cases where “boiling the ocean” is actually beneficial? Occasionally.

• Fundraising & PR: A grand vision can attract investors and media attention, but it must be backed by real, incremental progress. Also, don’t confuse between a grand vision (which ever company needs) and a phased or iterative approach. Your operating plan should be of the latter.
• Category Creation: If a startup is entering an entirely new industry, some level of ambitious thinking is required. However, even in these cases, breaking the problem down into smaller, achievable steps is crucial.
• Moonshot Companies: Deep tech, biotech, or AI research startups may need to take bigger bets—but even then, the best companies structure development in phases rather than trying to solve everything at once.

Startups should dream big, but execution is what separates visionaries from failures.

Final Thoughts

The most successful startups don’t boil the ocean—they boil a cup of water first, then scale. Trying to solve everything at once leads to failure, but tackling big visions through small, focused steps leads to world-changing companies.

If you find yourself taking on too much, step back and ask: “What is the smallest thing we can ship that creates value?”

The answer to that question might just save your startup.