Startups & Engineering

A collection of posts about building and scaling technical startups, drawing from my experiences as both a founder and technical leader. These articles cover everything from engineering methodologies to team building and technical decision making.

EOS Introduction

February 8, 2025

Tags:startups, management, eos, business

An introduction to the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS)

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The Art of Design in Technical Startups

June 15, 2024

Tags:startups, design, communication, product, strategy

An exploration of how design shapes communication, perception, and success in technology companies

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The Invisible Hand of Startup Culture

May 15, 2024

Tags:startups, culture, leadership, management, team-building

An exploration of how company culture shapes interactions, role boundaries, and trust in technical startups

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Decision Making Under Uncertainty: Lessons from Practice

April 15, 2024

Tags:startups, decision-making, probability, strategy, mathematics

An exploration of how to make decisions under uncertainty.

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Science vs. Engineering in Startups: A Tale of Two Methodologies

March 15, 2024

Tags:startups, engineering, science, methodology, project-management

An exploration of how scientific and engineering methodologies intersect in technical startups, and why traditional project management frameworks often fall short

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Startup Structure and Information Flow

January 18, 2024

Tags:startups, management, organization, communication

A framework for thinking about organizational structure and information flow in early-stage startups

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Investment: Cambrium Bio

September 27, 2022

Tags:startups, investments, biotech, synthetic-biology

Investment thesis and notes on Cambrium Bio

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At Year's End: 2018

December 25, 2018

Tags:meta, startups, year-in-review

A reflection on an eventful 2018, including the acquisition of Predikto by United Technologies

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Exit Interviews in Startups

May 5, 2016

Tags:startups, management, hiring, culture

The importance and implementation of exit interviews in startup environments

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Building an Engineering Team Around Ownership

April 28, 2016

Tags:engineering-management, leadership, startups, team-building

Exploring the challenges and solutions of role definition and ownership in small, talented engineering teams

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Journalism and the Perfect Pitch Deck

February 15, 2016

Tags:startups, entrepreneurship, pitching, venture capital

How the principles of journalism can be applied to create more effective startup pitch decks, using the 5 W's and 1 H framework.

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Market-Product fit vs Product-Market fit

December 28, 2015

Tags:startups, entrepreneurship, product management

An exploration of the differences between market-product fit and product-market fit, and how to determine which path is right for your startup.

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CyberLaunch: An Accelerator for Machine Learning Companies

December 8, 2015

Tags:startups, atlanta, machine learning, accelerators, data science

A look at CyberLaunch, Atlanta's accelerator focused on machine learning and information security companies, and its role in the startup ecosystem.

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Inherent Stickiness

November 2, 2014

Tags:startups, saas, product-strategy, business

Exploring the concept of product stickiness and how convexity creates sustainable competitive advantages

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