Jumping into the startup world

I recently joined a startup company in the role of tech lead. I came from a big company where I worked for more than 20 years. I had it good there, but I finally made the decision that I wasn't doing myself any good by staying there. Sure, the money was nice (I took a hefty pay cut to join the startup), but I wasn't growing and challenging myself the way I wanted to. So I put some trust in my abilities and made the leap to the world of startups.

We're starting from scratch which is something that most developers love. You don't often get the opportunity to jump on a bunch of new technology. Many times the projects that you're working on are well established, and carry the baggage of the existing components and technologies. If architected well (loosely coupled), there's a better chance of introducing newer tools, languages, frameworks, etc.

But there's nothing like starting from scratch. It can be fun (OK, it IS fun) if you love technology and learning. With the freedom of the blank slate, comes the responsibility of doing it right. A big part of doing it right is to constantly challenge yourself and stay up to date with the latest tools, techniques, and patterns.

Our platform and architecture is loaded with stuff that's new for me. And I love that. I'm having a blast digging into it. But they're not paying me to have fun (how do I get that job, anyway?). So I'm trying to set a productive direction for our team by blending components, tools and methodologies that have worked for the team members in the past with current technologies and trends.

We have a great team so far. Each team member brings a unique set of strengths that complements the other team members. And I learn from them every day. I don't kid myself that I know everything, and can make every decision. I rely on the team to bring their perspectives and experiences to the table and enjoy briefly debating the issues that come up. We haven't had many missteps so far, so I feel good about our collective knowledge and our ability to apply it to the real world.

I'll talk more about our architecture in future posts. But for now, I'm excited to hang on for the ride.