#4 Startup Engineering

In this episode, Toby and Krisztian tackle the challenges of startup engineering, drawing on experience helping companies scale from nothing to tens of developers. They explore the two main startup archetypes: the bootstrapped zero-to-one prototype phase and the well-funded one-to-many scaling phase. Topics include picking the right tech stack, when to use vibe coding versus proper infrastructure, the danger of over-engineering early, unit economics, multi-account cloud environments, avoiding the trap of rebuilding your data centre in the cloud, and why unblocking other teams is always the highest-value activity.

Chapters

0:00 Introduction

0:26 Setting the scene: two types of startup

2:07 Phase one: zero to one, get out the door fast

5:33 Defining MVP and avoiding scope creep

9:57 Zero to one vs one to many: different problems

13:42 Real startup examples: from vibe coding to Kubernetes

15:48 Security, compliance, ISO 27001, GDPR

17:58 Build vs buy

20:00 Practical tech stack for a solo founder MVP

22:56 Scaling with three developers and early funding

24:47 Unit economics: know your cost per user