Key Considerations For Software Development In Startups

One bad tech decision can destroy your startup. I've led the creation of 100+ software products for Silicon Valley startups & global businesses. The 5 key principles for choosing right in 2025: Most founders get their tech stack totally wrong. I've watched companies burn hundreds of thousands rewriting their entire codebase because they chose trendy tech that couldn't scale. Your tech stack choice today will impact: • How easily you scale • How fast you ship features • How much talent you attract Most chase whatever's hot in tech Twitter threads. But your business isn't a testing ground for experiments. Here are 5 principles I've learned from building software for Silicon Valley startups: 1. Avoid Fads Like The Plague Every year brings a new "revolutionary" framework that's supposed to change everything. 90% disappear within months. Your tech stack needs to solve real problems, not win coolness points. 2. Think Long-Term Your tech choices are marriages, not one-night stands. Pick solutions that will still be relevant in 5-10 years. The strongest technologies are usually the battle-tested ones. 3. Accept The Trade-offs There are no perfect solutions, only smart compromises: • Microservices scale better but add complexity • NoSQL gives flexibility but sacrifices consistency • Serverless cuts costs but increases dependency 4. Go Mainstream The more developers using a technology, the better your position: • Easier hiring • Better tool integration • Fewer scaling headaches • Lower maintenance costs Don't get stuck maintaining some obscure framework nobody uses. 5. Get Expert Eyes One bad tech choice = years of technical debt and scaling nightmares. Talk to experienced CTOs. Study where others failed. Ask around. The cost of getting it wrong is massive. I've seen it firsthand: • $300k spent on rewrites • 8-month delays • Entire teams quitting If you're building something serious and want to avoid these expensive mistakes, let's talk. We help companies choose and implement tech stacks that scale. Book a free consultation here: https://lnkd.in/dndQiR9A

I wanted to share 12 startup product thoughts I've been accumulating the last few years that might be helpful to you as you build your product: 1. From “build it right” → “build the right thing” The enemy is not bugs—it's irrelevance. Technical elegance is wasted if no one wants the feature. 2. From “is it scalable?” → “does anyone care?” Premature optimization is the graveyard of many startups. First, prove demand—then worry about scale. 3. From “roadmap certainty” → “roadmap discovery” Don’t cling to a 6-month plan. The best opportunities often emerge from what users do, not what you thought they would do. The roadmap is a hypothesis, not a contract. 4. From “what do we want to build?” → “what is the customer struggling with today?” Start with pain, not features. Great products emerge from deep empathy, not clever ideas. 5. From “how fast can we ship this?” → “how fast can we learn from this?” Shipping is just step one. Learning is the goal. Design experiments, not just sprints. 6. From “perfect handoffs” → “shared ownership” Early teams need to blur lines between product, design, and engineering. Everyone should feel responsible for the user’s outcome—not just their functional role. 7. From “this is done” → “this is live and being observed” Done isn’t done until real users are interacting with it and you're capturing feedback. Put in instrumentation and success criteria upfront. 8. From “launch big” → “launch often, small, and focused” Big launches feel good but are high-risk. Break features into the smallest shippable learning chunks. 9. From “let’s build everything” → “what’s the smallest version that creates value?” Ruthless focus is a superpower. MVP = Minimum Viable Progress. 10. From “we need more features” → “we need more usage of the right features” Engagement > feature count. Double down on what drives behavior change and revenue. 11. From “internal priorities” → “customer outcomes” Shift from what’s easiest or most exciting internally to what unblocks value externally. Value is what the user receives, not what you ship. 12. From “we can’t ship this yet” → “what’s stopping us from testing this today?” What else would you add? Are these helpful or change your mind on anything?