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For many funded startups, they have the opposite scenario — growth that wholly depends on marketing that masks the product deficiencies. As soon as you lay off the gas, product deficiencies become apparent, so you are tempted to raise more and more money.

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That's an interesting point that I hadn't really considered. Our startup never got to that stage. We raised money, burnt through it and then had to figure out how to salvage the situation being gritty.

Absolutely. This is very common in consumer products where the burden of moving over to the competition is minimal (think food delivery, ridesharing, home maintenance etc.).

Additional symptoms are relatively low retention or no retention at all, and aggressive marketing tactics to the point where as a customer you're not sure how can they be possibly making money.

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