How to minimize bad tech decisions when launching a SaaS startup

As a SaaS startup CTO, it pains me when I talk to SaaS startups and see tech decisions they made in the early days of their startup, which hinder their ability to scale, attract the right talent, and cost them a lot of time and money.

Technical debt (choosing an easy but limited solution instead of a better approach that could take more time) is unavoidable. There will always be technical debt or else you will never get your products launched to market.

Below are some tips for non-technical founders, to help reduce bad tech decisions as much as reasonably possible...

Tech Stack Decision

If you can, pick a tech stack that makes sense for now and the future.

One that you can use to get your POC (proof of concept) and MVP completed, but one that also can scale for the future.

If you decide to build something on a no-code solution, realize there is a possibility in the near future you are going to run into many limitations and may need to fully replace and re-platformed it as you grow.

When considering the tech stack, also consider the business implications. How costly is it going to be to hire people who have experience in that tech stack. I see many companies who want to use the latest technology, and they have a good reason they want to use it, however, finding developers with that experience could cost them 50% more than other mainstream technologies and they could face a lot of turnover.

Tech Team Decision

Focus on people who will help you build a successful company, are reliable individuals, technically capable, and can be passionate about helping the company be successful.

Many times people will find a developer who knows for example who is knowledgeable of one specific technology. They don't know how to evaluate what is best for the business because their scope of experience across all technology is limited.

This is why it's important to have good technical leadership and a good CTO.

Build with Security in Mind

Very often no one thinks about security in the beginning and this hurts their business later on as they have to redo and fix so many things or may experience a security incident.

This happens more than people think where their platform gets hacked in the early stages when no one thought about security.

Having a security mindset and having security skills on the team is critical these days so that you can protect the reputation of your company and protect your customer's data.

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