About
I am some who believes that most tech startups (especially the product-oriented ones) struggle in defining how much time and effort they should spend on their tech. Some startups over-engineer it from the get-go, leading to a more rigid foundation that is capable of hindering the progress of the business as a whole. Other startups under-engineer their tech by relying on the wrong people, or not having the long-term mindset.
Personally, I believe in the "Act Fast, Think Slow" mindset. I specialize in drawing the squiggly line between over-engineering and under-engineering, based on the business goals presented at the time.
To me, in a tech startup, business should always come first. Tech comes second. Tech is a tool to help the business materialize, and nurture the revenue. Tech is also a way to open up new revenue streams — when done the right way.
I believe in innovation. I don't believe in invention. I believe that most companies out there are fixing problems that exist in some else's tech ecosystem. Most CTOs would tell you "let's build our own". For me, I believe in relying on what other people have built first, and simply building the last 10% of the product from scratch. That 10% is "our own". To me, it is not justifiable for someone to rebuild what hundreds of other people have built before and call it innovation. Innovation is adding your touch to existing solutions. It is finding a gap in a market that is over-utilizing tech, or a niche in a market that is under-utilizing tech. It's adding a bolt into a machine to fix a particular problem, not rebuilding the whole machine.