Ship It
Imperative · Idiom · Startup & VC
Definitions
The battle cry of startup culture: release the product to users rather than endlessly polishing it. Embodies the philosophy that imperfect software in users' hands is more valuable than perfect software on your laptop.
In plain English: The startup mantra meaning 'release it now' — better to get something out to users quickly and improve it later than to wait for perfection.
Example: "Is it perfect? No. Does it work? Mostly. Ship it."
Etymology
- 1990s
- Microsoft culture popularizes 'ship it' as the mantra for getting software to customers — a whole team gets 'Ship It' awards
- 2006
- Joel Spolsky and Jeff Atwood champion the 'shipping' mindset: real artists ship, perfection is the enemy of done
- 2013
- GitHub ships a 'Ship It' squirrel emoji, cementing the phrase as developer culture shorthand for bias toward action