3 ms·

"make sure the architecture and code is examplary" If you have time to write beautiful code at a startup, I might be suspicious. If something is ugly but not b

"make sure the architecture and code is examplary" If you have time to write beautiful code at a startup, I might be suspicious. If something is ugly but not broken, why spend the time to fix it (versus releasing a new feature)? If you do everything right the first time, more power to you, but I think the prior suggests otherwise. "Look for fundamental problems and propose fundamental solutions. Shoot as deep into the software stack as plausible/possible." Not that I explicitly disagree, but the deeper you go, I suspect the higher your implementation risk.

rw 18y ago
The payoff for reducing code complexity, and thereby improving your intuition for the system, can be very high in the medium- and long-term.
- moe 18y ago
  I'd also add that if your project happens to be a "me-too" (which most projects probably are) then technical excellence might even be the deciding factor to establish and justify a presence in the marketplace. I wonder why these advisory articles always assume that the common startup is built around some truly novel idea. In my expirience the opposite is true; 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration...
  - anamax 18y ago
    > technical excellence might even be the deciding factor to establish and justify a presence [for a "me-too" project] in the marketplace. How often does technical excellence have a significant role in establishing presence in the marketplace? (I don't understand "justify". Justify to whom?)
    - moe 18y ago
      Justify to the users, give them a reason to use or switch to your product instead of staying with one of the competitors. (edit: a better word would maybe have been maintain) I don't know how often it really plays a role but I think many google products fit this pattern. Search, Gmail, Docs and many others are not novel ideas - they were just better executed than what we had before. One might even go on a limb and say that facebook is succeeding because it is a better myspace...
    - Maro 18y ago
      I think you're thinking in terms of end-user products, like a website. In this case, technical excellence may be less relevant as long as it works. However, if you're selling technology, like in the example given at the end of article, technical excellence may carry a higher payoff. Another example: id software selling their engines to other game developers.
  - Maro 18y ago
    It's not an advisory article. It's just my approach. Somebody with a different background probably has a completely different approach.
Maro 18y ago
Think id software.

rw 18y ago

The payoff for reducing code complexity, and thereby improving your intuition for the system, can be very high in the medium- and long-term.

moe 18y ago
I'd also add that if your project happens to be a "me-too" (which most projects probably are) then technical excellence might even be the deciding factor to establish and justify a presence in the marketplace. I wonder why these advisory articles always assume that the common startup is built around some truly novel idea. In my expirience the opposite is true; 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration...
- anamax 18y ago
  > technical excellence might even be the deciding factor to establish and justify a presence [for a "me-too" project] in the marketplace. How often does technical excellence have a significant role in establishing presence in the marketplace? (I don't understand "justify". Justify to whom?)
  - moe 18y ago
    Justify to the users, give them a reason to use or switch to your product instead of staying with one of the competitors. (edit: a better word would maybe have been maintain) I don't know how often it really plays a role but I think many google products fit this pattern. Search, Gmail, Docs and many others are not novel ideas - they were just better executed than what we had before. One might even go on a limb and say that facebook is succeeding because it is a better myspace...
  - Maro 18y ago
    I think you're thinking in terms of end-user products, like a website. In this case, technical excellence may be less relevant as long as it works. However, if you're selling technology, like in the example given at the end of article, technical excellence may carry a higher payoff. Another example: id software selling their engines to other game developers.
- Maro 18y ago
  It's not an advisory article. It's just my approach. Somebody with a different background probably has a completely different approach.

Maro 18y ago

Think id software.