The role of a technical founder in the different stages of a startup

This article is based on my own experiences of co-founding two different startups (Passbase and Midlane). Throughout building these companies, I encountered numerous pitfalls, such as over-engineering, choosing the wrong tech stack or building the wrong team & culture. Hence I share here my lessons learned as well as the roles of a founder from transforming an idea into a prototype, launching an MVP, scaling it, and achieving product-market fit.

The Role of a Technical Founder

As a technical founder, you’re more than just a builder; you’re a crucial partner in the startup journey, requiring intense commitment. Your responsibilities include leading product development, engaging with users, and wearing multiple hats — from front-end and back-end development to DevOps, UI/UX, and IT provisioning for the team. In the early days, your role might resemble that of a lead developer, but with some crucial differences: you must build quickly, handle technical debt, and thrive in chaos. And all this in a change of flux. So how does this look?

Stage 1: The ideation phase

Your goal is to build a prototype quickly, demo it to users and learn.

In the ideating stage, the focus is on rapidly creating a prototype. This could be a simple prototype using tools like Figma, a script for devtools, or 3D renderings for hardware startups. For instance, at Passbase, we quickly realized the importance of having something tangible to show potential users and investors. My Co-Founder Felix created these Mock-ups within a few hours, since it was cheaper to iterate on them than building the actual features.

Common Mistakes:

• Overbuilding the prototype and making it too perfect
• Not engaging with users early enough
• Getting too attached to initial ideas that don’t work

Stage 2: Building an MVP

Your goal is now to build and launch an MVP quickly, ideally within weeks.

After validating your prototype with user interest, the next step is building an MVP. The aim is to create something that users will commit to using, preferably by paying for it. Our first versions of Passbase or Midlane were built on a weekend with lots of caffeine and less sleep. We were almost ashamed of showing it to clients at the beginning since there were still so many things breaking or falling apart. We had demos to investors where the back-end went down mid demo.

Principles:

1. Do things that don’t scale: Use hacks and manual processes to launch quickly. For example, at Midlane, we first manually created accounts and uploaded files instead of building out the integrations from day 1.
2. Create a 80/20 solution: Try to get 80% of the feature with 20% of the effort. Push non-essential features until after launch. Can you deliver a v1 already earlier to users and test it, before building the full feature?
3. Choose the right tech stack for iteration speed: Use third-party frameworks and APIs to save time, such as Auth0 for authentication, Stripe for payments, and AWS for cloud infrastructure. Choose the programming language you and your team are most familiar with.

Other Examples:

• Justin.tv (Twitch): The founders built the MVP themselves before hiring additional engineers.
• Doordash: Started with a simple site and manual processes, focusing on getting the basics right in Palo Alto.

Stage 3: Post-Launch Iteration

Now your goal is to iterate quickly towards product-market fit.

Once you launch your MVP, the focus shifts to iterating based on user feedback and data. Use both hard data (analytics) and soft data (user interviews) to guide your iterations. Continuously launch new features and improvements based on this feedback. Ideally every feature that you build is based on that. The only person that is right, is your customer.

Principles:

1. Quickly iterate with hard and soft data: Set up simple analytics to track your main KPIs and continuously gather user feedback.
2. Continuously launch: Regularly release updates and new features to keep improving your product.
3. Balance building and fixing: Make thoughtful decisions between adding new features, fixing bugs, and addressing technical debt.
4. Don’t bring opinions but data to conversations that you are having with your Co-Founders on what to build next.

Example:

• Pokémon Go: Despite login issues at launch, it succeeded due to its massive user base and iterated on its technical challenges post-launch.
• Justin.tv (Twitch): They started interviewing users after launch. They found out that the highest requested feature was increasing stream quality, which was only flipping 1 setting in the database.

Evolution of the Technical Founder Role

As you achieve product-market fit, your role evolves. You’ll focus on scaling, refining your tech, and building your engineering team & culture as well as hiring and onboarding new team members. Your responsibilities will shift from coding to managing and hiring, transitioning from a lead developer to an architect or VP of engineering.

This is also sometimes the phase where technical Co-Founders have a big identity crisis and might choose to rather following the individual contributor track. For me it was at some point that I managed up to 20 people, when I realized that my role fundamentally changed.

Summary:

1. Ideation phase: Quickly build a prototype.
2. Building an MVP: Launch swiftly using hacks and third-party tools.
3. Post-launch iteration: Iterate based on data and user feedback, continuously launching updates.

The key takeaway:

Startups move quickly. Embrace the chaos, iterate rapidly, and always stay engaged with your users. Learning from my experiences with Passbase and Midlane, I hope these insights help others in navigating their startup journey more effectively.