https://blog.turboawesome.win/tags/startup/ Recent content in Startup on Bits, Trades & Systems Hugo en-us Wed, 18 May 2022 14:00:00 +0000 https://blog.turboawesome.win/2022/05/kafka-at-startup-scale/ Wed, 18 May 2022 14:00:00 +0000 https://blog.turboawesome.win/2022/05/kafka-at-startup-scale/ Running Kafka at a startup is different from running it at enterprise scale. The operational complexity is real, the defaults are wrong for small clusters, and the failure modes are different from what the documentation implies. https://blog.turboawesome.win/2022/02/engineering-roadmaps-planning-for-uncertainty/ Wed, 16 Feb 2022 09:30:00 +0000 https://blog.turboawesome.win/2022/02/engineering-roadmaps-planning-for-uncertainty/ Engineering roadmaps are commitments made under uncertainty. The planning practices that keep them honest — time horizon discipline, explicit uncertainty, and the difference between a roadmap and a plan. https://blog.turboawesome.win/2021/02/engineering-velocity-at-a-startup-what-actually-made-us-fast/ Tue, 09 Feb 2021 13:41:00 +0000 https://blog.turboawesome.win/2021/02/engineering-velocity-at-a-startup-what-actually-made-us-fast/ After two years at a fast-moving fintech startup, the things that actually determined how quickly we shipped were not the tools or the process — they were much simpler and harder to fix than that. https://blog.turboawesome.win/2020/08/the-platform-vs-product-tension-in-a-growing-startup/ Wed, 12 Aug 2020 10:45:00 +0000 https://blog.turboawesome.win/2020/08/the-platform-vs-product-tension-in-a-growing-startup/ Every startup engineering team eventually faces the platform question: invest in the foundation or keep shipping features? The tension is real, the tradeoffs are non-obvious, and the wrong answer in either direction is costly. https://blog.turboawesome.win/2019/06/building-the-first-production-service-at-a-startup-decisions-under-uncertainty/ Wed, 26 Jun 2019 10:44:00 +0000 https://blog.turboawesome.win/2019/06/building-the-first-production-service-at-a-startup-decisions-under-uncertainty/ The first production service sets patterns the team will follow for years. At a startup, you're making these decisions without full requirements, under time pressure, with a team that's still forming. Here's what we decided and why. https://blog.turboawesome.win/2019/01/why-i-left-on-risk-pace-and-ownership/ Wed, 09 Jan 2019 09:04:00 +0000 https://blog.turboawesome.win/2019/01/why-i-left-on-risk-pace-and-ownership/ After three years at a large financial institution, why I took a significant pay cut to join a tiny startup. The reasoning, the fears, and whether it was the right call. https://blog.turboawesome.win/2012/06/why-your-java-app-is-slow-before-it-even-starts-classloading-deep-dive/ Mon, 18 Jun 2012 09:11:00 +0000 https://blog.turboawesome.win/2012/06/why-your-java-app-is-slow-before-it-even-starts-classloading-deep-dive/ Java classloading happens lazily, on demand, and under lock. Understanding the classloader hierarchy and what triggers loading explains a category of JVM startup and first-call latency problems.