Google’s outage on the 12th was a reminder to founders that one unchecked error can freeze the internet. Service Control crashed and left music apps, online shops and office tools silent for three hours across every region.
Google later explained that a new quota feature lacked error handling and was not hidden behind a feature flag. A blank field in an automated policy update fired that code, triggering a crash loop.
Engineers found the fault in ten minutes and pressed a “red button” to bypass the broken path, but recovery dragged on in large regions such as Iowa because restarting tasks overloaded shared databases.
How Did the Breakdown Hit Startups?
Small products that depend on one Google API could not log users in, send emails or process sales. Founders had no clear dashboard because the monitoring system that usually reports service status was down at the same time, Google admitted.
That silence left support crews guessing whether their own code was to blame. The confusion drained customer trust and forced emergency workarounds outside normal working hours.
Why Does Quality Control Matter From Day One?
Quality control is a daily responsibility that companies should prioritise. Indeed defines it as the process of making sure a product or service meets set standards and customer needs. The practice trains staff to look out for errors and minimise losses.
Inspection will always be the most direct tool that helps catch errors early. Randomly sample outputs, plot them on a control chart and compare the spread against your benchmark.
Can Better Testing Prevent Public Pressure?
Google’s situation shows how one unchecked null pointer can affect an empire of services. Slashdot noted that the missing feature flag would have exposed the flaw in staging, but the measure that could’ve protected against this, was skipped.
A startup may handle fewer requests, but the same coding slip can still wipe data and scare users.
Automated tests, feature flags and staged rollouts cost time upfront but pay off when live traffic hits. They catch blank fields and stop herd effects that crush databases.
Our Experts:
- Salome Mikadze, Co-Founder, Movadex
- Olivia DeRamus, Founder, Communia
- Todd Stephenson, Co-Founder, Roof Quotes
- Sam Wright, Head of Partnerships and Operations, Huntr
- Mike Logan, CEO, C2, Data Technology
- Siri Varma Vegiraju, Security Tech Lead, Microsoft
Salome Mikadze, Co-Founder, Movadex
“Quality control matters. But what matters more is what happens when things break. And they will. No stack is bulletproof, no process is perfect. The difference between a good startup and a great one is how you respond in that moment. I’ve led teams that kept building when everything around us was uncertain. There were days when we had to find ways to deliver without ideal tools, stable infrastructure, or even basic predictability. You learn to move forward anyway. You learn to fix things fast, take ownership, and stay focused.
“Startups that survive long term don’t just optimize for clean delivery. They build muscle memory for resilience. When something fails, your users won’t remember whose fault it was. They’ll remember how you handled it. And that’s the part you actually control. Quality is not just in the code. It’s in how you lead when things fall apart.”
Olivia DeRamus, Founder, Communia
“With a user base in the hundreds of thousands and a fourfold spike in growth following the US election, Communia had to be ready to scale quickly without compromising safety or experience. For Olivia, quality control isn’t just a technical concern. It’s about building trust, especially when your users have been repeatedly let down by mainstream platforms.
“She has spoken at UK parliamentary roundtables on the failure of major tech companies to tackle harmful content and previously challenged Google’s claims around delayed enforcement. She can speak to how startups can design for reliability, stability and user safety from the very beginning.”
Todd Stephenson, Co-Founder, Roof Quotes
“Quality control should be on the top of your list when you are starting a business, particularly, in tech. As a startup, you have to earn the trust of customers, and nothing drives it away as fast as the lack of reliability. The problem that occurred recently with Google Cloud is an ideal case of how a focus on quality can be detrimental to a business.
“With such minor businesses, a startup lacks such cushioning, and a major stand like Google can withstand that shock. When your product or service fails, people will not be afraid of going to other companies. Paying attention to the trustworthiness of your systems is vital since the costs of failure could be colossal, both reputation-wise and in real money.
“In my experience, startups need to develop a robust system for testing, monitoring, and quickly addressing any issues that come up. It’s not just about avoiding downtime either, but ensuring that every customer has a touchpoint, whether that’s your website or a product feature, that works as expected.
“A proactive approach to quality control can prevent most issues before they even become a problem. If you’re building a brand, you have to think long term. One outage, no matter how small, can really set you back, so staying ahead of potential issues is key to long-term success.”
Sam Wright, Head of Partnerships and Operations, Huntr
“As a leader at a bootstrapped, profitable, and fast-growing startup, balancing the velocity code pushed and quality control is vital.”
“Just a year ago, we were a small enough team that code reviews were not really a thing. Today, we’ve developed processes to make sure work is reviewed but not stuck in a bureaucratic system with a bunch of blockers.”
“At the end of the day, the speed at which startups move is directly correlated to the level of red tape that prevents progress. The “startup edge” is the velocity of updates and the amount of risk that can be taken on in early, fast-growing stages.”
“At a certain size, the risk of failure due to less quality control outweighs the reward and companies slow down.”
“Winning is finding the balance of lean quality control and fast updates (along with quick fixes if things break”
Mike Logan, CEO of C2, Data Technology
“The recent Google Cloud outages are a wake-up call for startups. Many early-stage companies scale quickly, but overlook the importance of built-in quality control- especially when it comes to infrastructure. Because most startups are often reliant on a single cloud provider to cut costs or accelerate development, that creates major vulnerability when disruptions like this occur.
“Quality control must extend beyond product performance to include resilience planning, multi-cloud readiness, and contingency workflows. Otherwise, all it takes is one outage to instantly erode trust and disrupt user experience, which can catastrophically stall growth.”
Siri Varma Vegiraju, Security Tech Lead, Microsoft
“On June 12, 2025, a malformed quota policy with blank fields was propagated globally across Google Cloud’s control plane. This triggered a previously untested code path in Service Control, a critical API validation component. The new code lacked proper error handling and was not protected by a feature flag, resulting in null pointer crashes. Consequently, Service Control binaries entered a global crash loop.
“In cloud environments, changes must be rolled out region by region. In this case, although the change followed regional rollout procedures, the faulty code path was not triggered until a later policy update. Because this policy was globally replicated, the resulting failure had a global impact.
“The key lesson for startups is that regional rollouts alone are not enough. Each change must be thoroughly exercised and tested in every region before advancing. Quality control and staged validations are critical for preventing widespread failures and maintaining user trust.”
