Maximizing Success with Limited Time, Resources, and Energy: Lessons from Startup Engineering

Abstract

Startups are the harshest environments for engineers. Limited time, resources, and energy force teams to make decisions under pressure — and those decisions can determine whether a company survives or stalls.

In this talk, I’ll share lessons from my career moving through multiple roles — individual contributor, product manager, engineering manager, and now CTO & Co-Founder. Drawing from real experiences at startups that grew from under 10 people into larger companies, I’ll highlight the practical patterns that maximize chances of success. 

Attendees will walk away with a framework for making better engineering decisions in constrained environments, and learn how to avoid common traps that waste precious energy.

Key Takeaways:

  • How to evaluate platforms and frameworks for both short-term speed and long-term flexibility.
  • How to balance engineering purity with survival velocity.
  • How to prioritize automation and tooling investment.
  • How to keep teams focused on high-value work instead of reinventing the wheel.

Date

Monday Nov 17 / 01:35PM PST ( 50 minutes )

Location

Pacific DEKJ

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