Why PM Tools Fail Startups and How Orta Solves It?
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Project management struggles are real if you’re running a startup. You’ve probably felt this frustration: you need to get organized, so you try a project management tool. Maybe it’s one of the big names everyone talks about. But within weeks, your team has either abandoned it entirely or only one person is actually using it while everyone else has gone back to their mix of Slack, email, and sticky notes.
The Real Project Management Struggles Startups Face
1. Complexity Overload: We're a 5-person team. Why does this feel like SAP?
When you’re a scrappy startup moving fast, the last thing you need is a tool that requires a manual to understand. Yet most project management platforms come loaded with features you’ll never use:
- Gantt charts for projects that change daily.
- Advanced reporting for teams that can talk face-to-face.
- Complex permission systems when everyone should see everything.
- Workflow automation that takes longer to set up than doing the work manually.
The result? Your team spends more time figuring out the tool than actually getting work done. The steep learning curves mean adoption is slow, and the cluttered dashboards become more distracting than helpful.
2. Pricing That Punishes Growth: We pay for 10 features, use 2, and can barely afford 4 seats
Startup budgets are tight, but most PM tools price themselves like luxury products. The per-user pricing model that works for established companies becomes a nightmare when you’re bootstrapping:
You’re paying for premium features locked behind paywalls.
Adding team members means exponential cost increases.
- Hidden upgrade costs appear as you grow.
Monthly bills don’t reflect actual usage – you’re paying for seats that sit empty.
For a 5-person startup, paying $15-25 per user per month for features you don’t need isn’t just expensive, it’s unsustainable.
3. Tool Fragmentation: The 5-App Nightmare
Another common project management struggle is tool fragmentation. Here’s a typical startup workflow: Tasks get created in Trello, updates happen in Slack, files live in GoogleDrive, quick chats move to WhatsApp, and meeting notes end up in Notion. Sound chaotic? It is.
This fragmentation creates massive problems:
- Lost Context – Important decisions get buried in chat history.
- Missed Updates- team members aren’t seeing the full picture.
- Task Duplication – The same work gets tracked in multiple places.
- Communication Gaps – Information silos form without anyone realizing it.
Your team ends up spending more time hunting for information than actually working on the project.
4. The Adoption Problem: Only one person updates it. Everyone else ignores it.
Even when you successfully set up a project management system, there’s often one fatal flaw: only the person who set it up actually uses it. Everyone else continues working the way they always have, making the fancy PM tool nothing more than an expensive digital paperweight.
This happens because:
- Non-technical team members find the interface intimidating.
- The tool doesn’t integrate with existing workflows.
- There’s no built-in habit formation.
- Updates feel like extra work rather than natural workflow.
5. Mobile-Last Design: We work remote. The mobile app is awful.
In today’s remote-first world, your team needs to update projects from anywhere. But most PM tools were built for desktop users sitting in offices, with mobile apps that feel like afterthoughts:
- Mobile interfaces are clunky and hard to navigate.
- Offline access is limited or non-existent.
- Key features are missing from mobile versions.
- Real-time collaboration breaks down on smaller screens.
When half your team is working from coffee shops, co-working spaces, or different time zones, a desktop-first tool just doesn’t cut it.
6. Missing Task Context: "I see the task. I don't know what it's about."
For remote teams, project management struggles often get worse with mobile-last designs. Tasks without context are just words on a screen. Most PM tools treat tasks as isolated items rather than parts of ongoing conversations. This leads to:
- Team members not understanding the “why” behind their work.
- Decision history getting lost.
- Files and updates scattered across different platforms.
Constant misalignment on priorities and expectations.
When someone picks up a task, they should immediately understand not just what to do, but why it matters and how it fits into the bigger picture.
7. Set & Forget Syndrome: "We used it for 2 weeks. Then stopped."
Perhaps the biggest problem is that most project management tools are designed to be set up once and then ignored. There are no ongoing nudges to keep teams engaged, no feedback loops to improve usage, and no adaptation to how teams actually work.
The result? Teams start strong, use the tool enthusiastically for a few weeks, then gradually abandon it as other priorities take over. The tool becomes shelfware – expensive software that sits unused while teams revert to their old, chaotic ways of working.
What Startups Really Need
After talking to hundreds of startup founders and team members, we’ve identified what actually works for small, fast-moving teams:
- All-in-one functionality – Tasks, Files, and team updates in one place.
- Zero Learning curve – Tools that work intuitively from day one.
- Affordable, predictable pricing – Costs that scale sensibly with team size.
- Mobile-first collaboration – Full functionality wherever you work.
- Async-friendly design – Built for distributed teams and flexible schedules.
Most importantly, startups need tools that adapt to how they actually work, not tools that force them to change their workflows.
How Orta Solves Project Management Struggles for Modern Teams
That’s exactly why we built Orta. Instead of adding more features to an already bloated market, we focused on solving the core problems that make project management painful for startup teams.
Orta Simplifies Everything
- One Platform – for planning, tracking, and collaborating, no more app-switching.
- Designed to work like your team works – not how enterprise teams work.
- Flexible, fast, and frustration-free – because your time is better spent building your product.
We’ve eliminated the complexity overload by focusing only on features that small teams actually use. We’ve solved the pricing problem with transparent, startup-friendly rates. And we’ve built mobile-first collaboration that works whether you’re in a co-working space in Bali or your kitchen table at home.
Most importantly, Orta is designed for adoption. It integrates naturally into existing workflows, requires minimal setup, and actually gets better the more your team uses it.
Ready to Fix Your Project Management?
If you’re tired of juggling multiple tools, fighting with complex interfaces, and watching team members abandon yet another PM platform, it’s time to try something different.
Orta is offering a 60-day trial
so you can see how project management should work for startup teams. No complex setup, no hidden costs, no enterprise bloat, just the tools you need to get organized and stay productive.
If you’re tired of these project management struggles, Orta is built to solve them Start your free trial at www.ortaapp.com
Orta is project management built for how modern startups actually work. Try it free for 60 days and see why teams are finally sticking with their PM tool.
