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Startup Technology - Technical Founder Advice
32 segments available
YC Partner Jared Friedman joins founders Lillian Chou (COO, Second Measure), Diana Hu (CTO, Escher Reality), Calvin French-Owen (CTO, Segment) and Ralph Gootee (CTO, PlanGrid), to talk about what can go right and wrong building technology. Learn more at https://www.startupschool.org/
Segments Timeline
Introducing the Panel of Experts
Jared Friedman introduces the esteemed panel of technical founders, highlighting their successful companies and the shift in focus from CTO advice to tactical founder advice. The panel includes experts from various tech backgrounds, setting the stage for a discussion on technology and startups.
"I would like to introduce Jared Frieden my partner and his esteemed panel who he will introduce to talk about technology thank you thank you Jeff okay well I am super lucky to have a very esteemed gro..."
Ralph Gootee on Construction Tech
Ralph Gootee, CTO of PlanGrid, shares insights about building software for the construction industry, likening it to GitHub for construction. He discusses the importance of version control and collaboration tools, detailing their tech stack which includes AWS, Python, and native applications for various platforms.
"to cover as many of them as we can and then at the end we'll open it up to the in-person audience or some questions as well okay so let's get started could we start by having everyone introduce themse..."
Calvin French-Owen on Customer Data
Calvin French-Owen, CTO of Segment, explains how their single API helps collect and organize customer data for various downstream tools. He discusses their infrastructure built on AWS, utilizing microservices and containerization to manage data efficiently across platforms.
"done that hi everyone I'm Calvin French Owen and CTO and co-founder of segment segment is a single API to collect organize and adapt all of your customer data into hundreds of downstream tools you mig..."
Diana Hu on Augmented Reality
Diana Hu, founder and CTO of Escher Reality, discusses their backend technology for augmented reality, now under Niantic. She highlights the challenges of building AR experiences and the importance of simplifying complex interactions for developers, detailing their tech stack that includes C++ and Google Cloud.
"go good morning everyone so my name is diana who i was the founder and CTO for SEO reality and we're building the backend for augmented reality and i say i was because my company just got acquired by ..."
Lillian Chou on Data Analysis
Lillian Chou, CEO of Second Measure, shares how their company analyzes credit card data to provide insights into company performance. She discusses the unique collaboration between data scientists and engineers in their technical organization, emphasizing the importance of rapid data querying and user experience.
"that we run some of the CVL rails we could prototype it in the phone and then we could easily move them into the server because our service actually also written in C++ hi everyone I'm Lillian I am CE..."
Diversity in Technology Organizations
The panel reflects on the diversity of technology organizations represented, discussing the unique challenges and innovations each company faces. This segment emphasizes the varied approaches to technology and product development among the founders.
"people and that's actually split evenly between data scientists and engineers and that's probably something that makes us unique is that our core product is actually the data itself so our data scient..."
Building the First Version: Ralph's Story
Ralph Gootee shares the story of building the first version of PlanGrid, detailing the challenges faced in developing a blueprint viewer for the iPad. He recounts the technical hurdles and the importance of focusing on what was technically impossible at the time.
"that are here today okay so most of the company is in start-up school are really early so I want to take everyone here back to their v1 the very first version before you had actually shipped anything ..."
Calvin's Journey to Product-Market Fit
Calvin French-Owen recounts the journey of Segment's evolution from a classroom tool to a customer data platform. He shares the lessons learned from their initial failures and how they pivoted to find product-market fit, ultimately leading to the creation of their successful API.
"first prototype cool um I'll share a little bit of a story of our v1 and then maybe our v1 next I think for those of you has seen the startup school talk where my co-founder Peter talks about finding ..."
Harnessing Robotics for AR
This segment explores the founders' background in robotics and their innovative approach to applying simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) algorithms to augmented reality (AR). They discuss the challenges and breakthroughs they experienced while adapting these technologies for mobile devices.
"and so today I think there's actually no parts of that product which still live on today but it was enough to get us kind of the seed of product market fit and then start getting us a user base so one..."
Facing Competition from Apple
The founders recount a critical moment during their Y Combinator experience when Apple announced ARKit, a direct competitor to their product. They share how this motivated them to accelerate their development and refine their offering to stand out in the market.
"with phones for example for iPhone 7 has the same competition actually as a MacBook Pro from 2013 so that's you think about that that's kind of amazing in terms of all the trends with Moore's law and ..."
The Road to a Working Product
In this segment, the founders reflect on the timeline from initial algorithm development to having a working product. They discuss the importance of part-time efforts, hiring additional engineers, and the iterative process that led to a successful launch.
"us it's sort of this really moment where you are looking at yourself and it is really go flight-or-fight so we decided why not let's just take on Apple so we decided to just double down and we had thi..."
Building a Self-Service Platform
The founders share their insights on developing a self-service analytics platform for investors. They discuss the challenges of user testing and the evolution of their product to meet customer needs, emphasizing the importance of guidance and simplicity.
"to really accelerate and get it working well cool so for us our v1 probably took assuming full-time two or three months to build and I actually would say that most of that time was just figuring out w..."
Choosing the Right Technology
This segment focuses on the founders' decision-making process regarding technology choices for their application. They highlight the importance of using familiar technologies to enable rapid iteration and the eventual transition to more robust solutions as their product matured.
"think some important choices that we made early on is and maybe some that you guys are facing right now is what technology do you want to use like what do you want to build this in ultimately we decid..."
Evolving Engineering Practices
The founders discuss the trade-offs between speed and engineering best practices in the early stages of their startup. They explain how their approach to testing, code reviews, and system complexity evolved as their team grew and they sought to maintain product reliability.
"that problem awesome okay so I'm gonna go next to the very top voted question from the startup school forum which is about the trade-off between engineering best practices like good test coverage and ..."
Phases of Development: Hackathon to Structure
This segment outlines the three distinct phases of development experienced by the speaker's team. They describe the initial phase as a chaotic 'hackathon mode' with little structure, where the focus was solely on acquiring users. The discussion highlights the evolution of their development process as they began to incorporate more structured engineering practices.
"there it's all rewritten through pair of do that that expect that number of users cool I think for us at segments there are kind of three distinct phases of our development I'd say the first one was w..."
The Impact of Hiring on Development
The speaker reflects on the significant changes that occurred after hiring their first engineer. This transition marked a shift from a small, informal team to a more structured development environment, leading to improvements in testing, continuous integration (CI), and overall product quality. The segment emphasizes the importance of scaling the team effectively to enhance productivity.
"of money and then the whole thing wouldn't be been mattered I think from there the the first phase that then shifted was when we brought on our first engineer TJ Wright for those of you who know are i..."
Evolving Security and Scalability Practices
In this segment, the speaker discusses the evolution of their approach to security and scalability as their customer base grew. They explain how the need for robust security measures became critical once they started serving enterprise customers, highlighting the balance between rapid development and ensuring data integrity.
"of testing in CI and just reproducibility when it came to running the builds and running the stack because suddenly we had to expand outside of just the four of us and then I think so maybe that perio..."
Balancing Engineering Best Practices
The speaker addresses the challenges of maintaining engineering best practices while scaling their product. They discuss the trade-offs between writing extensive tests and delivering a functional product, emphasizing the need for a balance that allows for both quality and speed in development.
"sense and and that that last period like roughly what scale did you have to reach before you started thinking seriously about those things yeah it's a good question I think when we started having ente..."
Adapting Methodologies to Team Needs
This segment explores how the speaker's team adapts various engineering methodologies to fit their unique needs. They describe their approach as 'agile-ish,' incorporating elements of agile practices while remaining flexible to what works best for their team dynamics and project requirements.
"key scalability is a challenging one because it's I don't know I'm not sure if there's a way to do it without it being kind of reactionary you either over engineer everything and then you maybe never ..."
The Evolution of Team Processes
The speaker reflects on the evolution of their team's processes as they grew from a small group to a larger organization. They discuss the shift from minimal documentation and informal practices to a more structured approach that includes weekly planning and improved communication to manage complexity.
"so you know find that trade-off yourself I remember when we were in - I see we had all these stories of companies that had built the most ironclad architecture and just never had a product to market s..."
The Role of OKRs in Team Alignment
In this segment, the speaker introduces the concept of Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) as a framework for aligning team goals. They explain how their organization implements OKRs to ensure that all teams are working towards common objectives, fostering accountability and clarity in their development efforts.
"generally learned the tricks of not writing spaghetti code pretty quickly and you know some of that code runs without heavy testing the other thing to mention is to properly scale test our product it ..."
Self-Organizing Teams and Flexibility
The speaker discusses the importance of allowing engineering teams to self-organize and choose their own processes. They highlight the flexibility within their organization, where teams can adopt different tools and methodologies that best suit their workflow, promoting autonomy and innovation in their development practices.
"door so engineering best practices are great there's a trade-off between writing a lot of tests and writing good code from the get-go so speaking of test-driven development a lot of the questions were..."
Daily Stand-Ups and Time Boxing
The panelists share their experiences with daily stand-up meetings and the concept of time boxing in software development. They stress the value of daily communication among engineers to unblock issues and maintain focus. The discussion also touches on the importance of time management techniques to keep projects on track and ensure realistic deadlines.
"we've introduced over the past two years similarly the okay our model for those of you are familiar and this was a model that was developed at Google it's a idea of O's or objectives and then key resu..."
Navigating Non-Technical Co-Founders
This segment addresses the challenges of working with non-technical co-founders, particularly regarding deadlines and project management. The panelists share strategies for effectively communicating timelines and expectations, emphasizing the need for a lightweight process to manage projects and the importance of understanding the technical aspects of product development.
"stand-ups you've got to communicate on a daily basis as engineers sometimes it can be a little difficult to want to communicate every day and not just program when you wake up but that 15 minutes and ..."
Setting Realistic Deadlines
Panelists discuss the difficulties of setting realistic deadlines in a startup environment, especially when working with non-technical partners. They share personal anecdotes about optimism bias in estimating project timelines and suggest maintaining separate records for actual versus expected deadlines to manage expectations effectively.
"technical non-technical co-founder is staring at me over there um a few a few ideas here if you've got someone that's really non-technical and I'm not saying my co-founders really non-technical I'm su..."
Transitioning from Technical to Leadership Roles
In this segment, the conversation shifts to the transition from being a hands-on technical contributor to a leadership role within a startup. The panelists reflect on the shift in focus from product development to building a sustainable organization and the importance of preparing for a future where technical involvement may decrease.
"really run into this problem in the early days kind of everyone's like oh yeah I know what's happening here if it slips we know exactly why it wasn't as big of an issue I found more recently with dead..."
Hiring Strategies: Full-Time vs. Contractors
The panel discusses hiring strategies for early-stage startups, weighing the benefits of hiring full-time employees versus contractors. They emphasize the importance of building core competencies in-house and the potential drawbacks of outsourcing critical development work. The segment also touches on the cultural implications of hiring remote versus local talent.
"co-founder is technical so I don't have much to offer here not much to add either on the deadlines and time estimates to do your best guess do some padding I'd say one thing kind of on the non-technic..."
The Evolution of Remote Work
The panelists discuss their journey from primarily hiring remote employees to gradually incorporating local hires. They reflect on the benefits of remote work, including access to diverse talent and the importance of building a strong remote culture. The segment emphasizes the need for effective communication and documentation in remote teams.
"building the team locally but I think you could handle a lot of stories of companies that do remote but you have to kind of start remote first cool yeah I can share a little bit from our story so in t..."
Navigating Contractor Relationships
In this segment, the founders share personal anecdotes about their experiences with contractors, including the challenges and benefits of hiring friends and acquaintances. They discuss the importance of being open-hearted in hiring decisions and the management challenges that come with contractors, emphasizing that they require significant oversight.
"start hiring we just said hey which you like to work more closely together I think it came with its own set of trade-offs on the plus side we had access to these people who were insanely talented not ..."
Finding the Right Balance: Remote and Local Talent
The discussion shifts to the balance between remote and local talent in building a successful startup. The founders reflect on their evolving policies regarding remote work and the importance of hiring the best talent, regardless of location. They stress the significance of adapting hiring strategies to the company's growth and needs.
"I think that even though I wouldn't suggest hiring a contractor immediately we just did what was right for us at our company size and what we needed right then was like heli I need this kind of right ..."
Accelerating Development: User Feedback is Key
The panelists emphasize the importance of user feedback in accelerating product development. They share insights on getting in front of users early and often to validate ideas and iterate on products. The segment highlights the value of feedback loops and the necessity of understanding user needs to avoid building in a vacuum.
"easy answer for any of these questions great okay I think we've got time for one or two questions from the audience questions questions one over there you okay I'm just going to repeat the question so..."
Effective Communication with Users
In this final segment, the founders discuss strategies for effective communication with users to gather valuable feedback. They stress the importance of setting up meetings and asking the right questions to elicit meaningful insights. The conversation wraps up with a reminder of the power of user engagement in shaping product development.
"building out the v1 I think is really powerful you know I love mobile development I love Swift I love Kotlin but I don't think I would choose to have to write for different platforms if I was going to..."