How to choose the right tech stack for start-ups?

2020 was a difficult year for many businesses. Despite the challenges posed by the global pandemic, in 2020 4.4 million new companies started operating[1]. Less than 50% of new businesses make it to their fifth year [2]. Launching a start-up is a challenging and exciting journey. However, it places a lot of responsibility and pressure on the leadership at these businesses. Every decision is crucial and impacts the future of the company. For software or tech start-ups, choosing the right technology infrastructure i.e. tech stack is possibly the most important decision that will determine that success or failure. In this white paper, Rob Zuber CTO of circleci shares advice and insights about making the right decisions at the right time. But first, let's understand what a tech stack is:

What is a tech stack?

Sometimes referred to as a solutions stack or technology infrastructure, a tech-stack is all the technology services that are used to develop and run an application. For example, Facebook's tech-stack included: PHP, Reach, Cassandra, and Jest. Airbnb's tech-stack includes PHP, Python, JavaScript, Java, and Ruby. The word stack is used because these technology services are used on top of each other to build the application.

See also: What is Testing in Production?

Advice for start-ups

Start-ups need to be flexible, adaptable, and ready to seize any opportunity. Over the course of its lifecycle, a business may go through transformative changes several times over. Odeo was a podcasting system that eventually became, Twitter. A massive social networking platform that we love and love to hate. TinySpeck was designed as a gaming engine and eventually became the immensely popular messaging platform Slack. Rob Zuber uses these examples to highlight how important it is for start-ups to be willing to embrace change. Mention below is some of his advice for start-ups, download this white paper to read his full insights:

1. Don't do 'stealth mode'

A lot of start-ups choose to build their product in stealth mode, during this period they build their product in secret and do not share it with anyone out of fear that their idea will be stolen. Zuber advises against this practice. The fear is unfounded and the fact of the matter is, no matter what idea a start-up is working on it's most likely that three other teams, somewhere in the world are working on the same idea. Instead of going into stealth mode, Zuber advises that you build your product as fast as possible and put it in front of customers. Collect feedback and proceed from there. Build fast and fail fast.

2. Don't write a business plan, build an MVP

In the context of software, MVP stands for the most viable product. Zuber says that is good to have a plan but it's also important not to go overboard. He advises start-ups to plan for the next step, build and get feedback. By focusing on the next step, businesses are placing themselves in the best place to seize an opportunity. Along the way, the preparedness and work will evolve into a business plan. The best strategy is to be wrong as quickly as possible so that you can identify what is the right thing to build and then build it.

Download this ebook for more insights and guidelines on how start-ups can select the right technology infrastructure. Subscribe to whitepapers.online for quality resources and advice from industry experts.

Source:

1. Mar 21, '40 Staggering Startup Statistics Everyone Should Know in 2021', WebsiteBuilder [avialable online] available from: https://websitebuilder.org/blog/startup-statistics/[accessed Mar 2]

2. Feb 21, B. Chernev, 'What Percentage of Startups Fail? [67+ Stats for 2020]', Review42 [available online] avialable from: https://review42.com/resources/what-percentage-of-startups-fail/ [accessed Mar 21]