Half-Baked Product

A founder with no baking experience launches an oven startup based on a spreadsheet projection of capturing 10% of Spain's market, raising $5 million after selling only 5 prototype units that worked correctly only one-third of the time. He hires a passionate engineer and a sales team with no oven industry experience, while the engineer brings in forum experts to develop an algorithm for automated baking—a task that proves far more complex than anticipated. The venture illustrates how a polished business plan and investor enthusiasm can mask fundamental product-market fit problems and the gap between theory and reality.