Isn't the fits & starts & blind alleys the actual work involved in getting the company onto the right trajectory? Empirically, the vast majority of time spent in startups is in that category, and if someone has figured out a way to reduce the time, you'd think they'd be rich by now. (Okay, you could argue that YC is a good example of an organization trying to systematically reduce the time spent getting a company on a breakout trajectory, and they are getting rich off it. But even then, a majority of YC startups never make it.)