If you back companies for a living, you already know this story. You’ll just know it by a different name. A founder raises money on a sharp idea and a lot of energy. Eighteen months later, the idea is still sharp. The energy is spent on scheduling, chasing decisions that should have been made three weeks ago, and re-explaining priorities to a team that never got a clear version the first time. Revenue is fine. Growth is flat. Nobody can say exactly why. You call it a scaling