what i have learnt working with startups

what i have learnt working withstartups.

phil calçado@pcalcado

http://philcalcado.com

hi, i am phil.

i work here:

mandatory “we are hiring” plug:

http://soundcloud.com/jobs

but i used to work here:

“we are in trouble. get those agile people in.”

often too late.

how it all begins

startups take on debt

startups take on debtfinancialtechnical

financial debt(oversimplified)

Weekend hack

Uh? People are using this...

We are onTechCrunch!

Pump in new features!

More people!

A-Round Investment

tech debt(oversimplified)

http://martinfowler.com/bliki/TechnicalDebt.html

Weekend hack

Uh? People are using this...

We are onTechCrunch!

Pump in new features!

More people!

A-Round Investment

More engineers!

More Features!

Fast!

we solve financial problems with re$ources

technical problems require re$ources and time

why it happens

cause #1:getting shit out.

http://martinfowler.com/bliki/TechnicalDebt.html

you don't want to be

“I thought we were going to build a better Facebook,[But] within 30 minutes I realized, Oh my God, it's broken. Holy shit, we totally

fucked up.”http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/160/bill-nguyen-startups

a startup needs to validate its idea. soon.

http://tinyurl.com/leanstartupbook

we all know what that means

cause #2:we like it easy.

http://www.infoq.com/presentations/Simple-Made-Easy

simple:●one role●one task●one concept●one dimension

http://www.infoq.com/presentations/Simple-Made-Easy

easy:●near, at hand●near to our understanding, skill set

top 3 measures for minimising damage

#1don't stop the world.

●the industry won't wait until you have it all fixed.

#2careful with interest vs. principal.

●measure investment made because of tech debt; paying principal may be cheaper in the medium term.

#3break the big ball of mud.

●componentise your infrastructure; even if this means duplicated code for a while. use queues and webservices.