  It is commonly claimed that the initial stages of any startup business are
dominated by continuous, extended uncertainty, in an environment that has even
been described as chaotic. Consequently, decisions are made in uncertain
circumstances, so making the right decision is crucial to successful business.
However, little currently exists in the way of empirical studies into this
supposed uncertainty. In this paper, we study decision-making in early-stage
software startups by means of a single, in-depth case study. Based on our data,
we argue that software startups do not work in a chaotic environment, nor are
they characterized by unique uncertainty unlike that experienced by other
firms.
