Solutions to 4 Lost-Startup Problems The honeymoon is easy. Once it's over, you have to meet problems head on.

You've built a successful startup--now everyone lives happily ever after, right? Guess again. Here's what to do when the honeymoon is over and the shiitake hits the fan.

1. Problem: The product's late.

• How you got here: Probably inexperience, wishful thinking and buckling under the real or imagined pressure of investors to ship by a certain date.
• What to do now: Gather the team together and discuss the project's real status. Ruthlessly decide on changes in people's roles. Scale back the scope/complexity/coolness of the product. Plead guilty to your investors--admit you screwed up. Sandbag the investors--tell them a ship date you know you can beat--and I do mean "know," because your neck is on the chopping block. Then shut up and get to work.