A Tumblr blog may not be the best solution but spending that many resources on a blog (especially one not featured in the main navigation) is usually out of the question for most startups.
For most startups the amount of time invested for a custom Jekyll setup and a downtime script could be replaced with a new feature or a better product/home page.
I think its important for startups not to spend too much time blogging unless they feel it will provide them some decent traffic and strongly support the product/company. Make the product better first. If your blog host (Tumblr) isn't stable enough, wordpress it and be done with it.
I would caution this making sure to note "it depends on the startup". If your industry pays attention to blogs it's very much worth devoting large amounts of effort to capturing this attention. I as much as the next programmer need the _focus on marketing_ mantra pounded into my head time and time again.
See 37signals blog, seomoz blog, and every piece of advice patio11 has ever written.
I spent 1/2 a day building a blog (including RSS support). I wanted an integrated visual experience that stayed up to date as the website changed (which it is doing a lot right now) and took advantage of the same underlying db and hosting infrastructure. Trying to do that with a different blog engine would have meant tweaking the blog every day, which would be far more effort.
I agree with this notion. I would never use a 3rd party blog engine with it's own branding/UI and use that for my own site which has naturally a different branding/UI.
It's like having an @aol.com email address rather than your own domain. It looks unprofessional at best.
For most startups the amount of time invested for a custom Jekyll setup and a downtime script could be replaced with a new feature or a better product/home page.
I think its important for startups not to spend too much time blogging unless they feel it will provide them some decent traffic and strongly support the product/company. Make the product better first. If your blog host (Tumblr) isn't stable enough, wordpress it and be done with it.