The common mental model of a fledgling software startup is too large by at least one order of magnitude. For a decent, traction-but-no-rocketship product orien

The common mental model of a fledgling software startup is too large by at least one order of magnitude. For a decent, traction-but-no-rocketship product oriented startup, you need one solid back-end+ops guy, one solid front-end+UX guy, and one programmer for each mobile platform you wish to support. Add a CEO+sales+finances person, to keep the business side of the business compliant. Yes, you won't get a cool continuous integration autoscaling whatnot doodad. YAGNI also applies to infrastructure, people and organizational hierarchies. Don't build them just because Google and Facebook have them. Look for a profitable company that's just one size bigger than you are today, and aim for that. They've already proven that it's possible to operate at that size with the whatever they've got. Repeat as you grow.