Startups are different: too much budget is as harmful as too little—as countless dot-com failures can attest—and startups are extremely sensitive to midcourse budgetary changes. It is extremely rare for a stand-alone startup company to lose 10 percent of its cash on hand suddenly. In a large number of cases, this would be a fatal blow, as independent startups are run with little margin for error. Thus, startups are both easier and more demanding to run than traditional divisions: they require much less capital overall, but that capital must be absolutely secure from tampering.
