Last week in Tech Tuesday I asked for topics to write about in my series on technology in startups. There seemed to be a fair bit of interest in security, so here we go. First off a disclaimer. As with any general purpose advice, you need to think a lot about what it is you are trying to do. The security requirements for a bitcoin startup are vastly different from those for a social media one. When you are just getting going you should treat security the same way as scalability: make sure you...

Last week in Tech Tuesday I asked for topics to write about in my series on technology in startups. There seemed to be a fair bit of interest in security, so here we go. First off a disclaimer. As with any general purpose advice, you need to think a lot about what it is you are trying to do. The security requirements for a bitcoin startup are vastly different from those for a social media one. When you are just getting going you should treat security the same way as scalability: make sure you...

The current Tech Tuesday series is about technology in startups. I started the series out with posts on initially choosing and evolving your technology. Since then I have been writing about best practices for growing and structuring your engineering team, with separate posts on hiring and retaining engineers and one on remote team members. Now that I am eight posts into this series, I am curious what questions readers may have that I should cover in upcoming posts. Here are some ideas to get ...

The current Tech Tuesday series is about technology in startups. I started the series out with posts on initially choosing and evolving your technology. Since then I have been writing about best practices for growing and structuring your engineering team, with separate posts on hiring and retaining engineers and one on remote team members. Now that I am eight posts into this series, I am curious what questions readers may have that I should cover in upcoming posts. Here are some ideas to get ...

The last two Tech Tuesdays were about choosing technology as a startup. Today we are talking about what to do once you are up and running. Let me start by categorically stating what you should never, ever do: rewrite everything from scratch. There is a terrific piece on why this is a bad idea written in 2000 by Joel Spolsky that you should go off and read right now (Joel is a very entertaining writer). Etsy early on made this mistake and it almost killed the company. When I first invested in ...

The last two Tech Tuesdays were about choosing technology as a startup. Today we are talking about what to do once you are up and running. Let me start by categorically stating what you should never, ever do: rewrite everything from scratch. There is a terrific piece on why this is a bad idea written in 2000 by Joel Spolsky that you should go off and read right now (Joel is a very entertaining writer). Etsy early on made this mistake and it almost killed the company. When I first invested in ...

Last Tech Tuesday I offered some very rough guidelines for making technology choices in a startup. I was going to write today about how to evolve that over time, but one of the comments suggested that it would be great to pick something that won’t immediately require a massive rewrite if you hit user growth. So a bit more today on this initial choice. I agree with the suggestion but with an important caveat: make a choice where you don’t sacrifice agility. At the earliest stages the single mo...

Last Tech Tuesday I offered some very rough guidelines for making technology choices in a startup. I was going to write today about how to evolve that over time, but one of the comments suggested that it would be great to pick something that won’t immediately require a massive rewrite if you hit user growth. So a bit more today on this initial choice. I agree with the suggestion but with an important caveat: make a choice where you don’t sacrifice agility. At the earliest stages the single mo...

This is the first of a new series of Tech Tuesday posts on Technology in Startups. Today’s topic: choosing your technologies. As a startup when you are just getting going, you have the luxury of picking any technology you want – you don’t yet have a legacy set of choices to contend with. It’s completely greenfield and that level of choice can be both exhilarating and daunting (what if I pick the wrong technology? cf Paradox of Choice). So what are some guidelines for thinking about that choic...

This is the first of a new series of Tech Tuesday posts on Technology in Startups. Today’s topic: choosing your technologies. As a startup when you are just getting going, you have the luxury of picking any technology you want – you don’t yet have a legacy set of choices to contend with. It’s completely greenfield and that level of choice can be both exhilarating and daunting (what if I pick the wrong technology? cf Paradox of Choice). So what are some guidelines for thinking about that choic...

Last Tech Tuesday I wrote that the companies which do well on hiring engineers are the ones that “prioritize both hiring *and* having a great work environment.” The post went on to talk about some of the best practices in hiring. Today’s follow-up is about creating a great work environment for engineers. There is obviously a lot that goes into creating a great work environment including overall company culture, office space, company mission etc. Instead of those more general points, here are ...

Last Tech Tuesday I wrote that the companies which do well on hiring engineers are the ones that “prioritize both hiring *and* having a great work environment.” The post went on to talk about some of the best practices in hiring. Today’s follow-up is about creating a great work environment for engineers. There is obviously a lot that goes into creating a great work environment including overall company culture, office space, company mission etc. Instead of those more general points, here are ...

Last Tech Tuesday, I wrote about growing your engineering organization and the week before that about evolving your technology. Today here are three more best practices for successful engineering growth: APIs - I will have a lot more to say about how APIs relate to strategy in a separate post, but they are also a key internal tool as you grow even if not exposed to third parties. Having clearly defined APIs is what lets different parts of the engineering organization work with different techn...

Last Tech Tuesday, I wrote about growing your engineering organization and the week before that about evolving your technology. Today here are three more best practices for successful engineering growth: APIs - I will have a lot more to say about how APIs relate to strategy in a separate post, but they are also a key internal tool as you grow even if not exposed to third parties. Having clearly defined APIs is what lets different parts of the engineering organization work with different techn...

I love meeting with entrepreneurs because most of them are full of optimism and often driven by a big vision. It is then easy to get into a conversation about that vision and how awesome it will be. But therein lurks a great danger and one that both entrepreneurs and investors (myself included) can easily fall prey to. Outside the room nobody really knows or even cares about your grand vision. Instead, your product is all there is. What do I mean by this? Even if you do a fair bit of marketin...

I love meeting with entrepreneurs because most of them are full of optimism and often driven by a big vision. It is then easy to get into a conversation about that vision and how awesome it will be. But therein lurks a great danger and one that both entrepreneurs and investors (myself included) can easily fall prey to. Outside the room nobody really knows or even cares about your grand vision. Instead, your product is all there is. What do I mean by this? Even if you do a fair bit of marketin...

When I was an entrepreneur raising money I tended to make a classic mistake: trying to convey all the amazing things we were doing in great detail. This is a terrible strategy. Why? Because too much detail buries the story of your business and also makes your business seem, well, complex. And investors are afraid of complexity. Imagine for a moment a pitch that describes in great technical detail creating a custom processor, a custom operating system, a new relationship between hardware produ...

When I was an entrepreneur raising money I tended to make a classic mistake: trying to convey all the amazing things we were doing in great detail. This is a terrible strategy. Why? Because too much detail buries the story of your business and also makes your business seem, well, complex. And investors are afraid of complexity. Imagine for a moment a pitch that describes in great technical detail creating a custom processor, a custom operating system, a new relationship between hardware produ...

I have been writing the last couple of Tech Tuesdays about hiring and retaining engineers. One of the questions that comes up a lot in that context is what to do about people who are in other locations. Is it a good idea to have remote engineers? There are people who seem to have near religious believes about this ranging from it can never work to it being the only thing to get anything done. In practice I have found that pretty much anything can work if you support it with the right culture ...

I have been writing the last couple of Tech Tuesdays about hiring and retaining engineers. One of the questions that comes up a lot in that context is what to do about people who are in other locations. Is it a good idea to have remote engineers? There are people who seem to have near religious believes about this ranging from it can never work to it being the only thing to get anything done. In practice I have found that pretty much anything can work if you support it with the right culture ...