Steering the technology in an early-stage startup is a thrilling, challenging, and often chaotic endeavor. This track brings together battle-tested CTOs and Founding Engineers to share hard-won lessons on building software effectively under uncertainty. Learn strategies for making rapid, flexible technical decisions, implementing "just enough" solutions that are robust and extensible for growth, tackling scaling challenges, prioritizing work when resources are scarce, and balancing speed with a healthy work/life environment. If you're an engineer, technical lead, or aspiring founder navigating the unique landscape of a nascent business, this track offers invaluable, real-world advice and perspectives to help you build for both today and tomorrow.
From this track
From Founding Engineer to CTO to CEO – At the Same Startup
Monday Nov 17 / 10:35AM PST
As a college sophomore, I founded Pointz, initially building its core routing engine from scratch. I architected the platform’s safety rating algorithm, integrating geospatial data structures, crowdsourced inputs, and multi-criteria decision-making to deliver context-aware routing.
Trisha Ballakur
Co-Founder and CEO @Pointz, Forbes 30 Under 30 2025, Previously @Techstars and @Adobe
From Staff Platform Engineer to a 16z Founder: What I Wish I'd Known
Monday Nov 17 / 11:45AM PST
The Technical Leadership Challenge: Every successful engineering team faces the same inflection point: transforming beloved internal tools into a legitimate platform business.
Gonzalo (Glo) Maldonado
CTO & Cofounder of @Mocksi.ai, Staff Platform Engineer Turned Startup Founder, Turns Developer Platforms into Products, Temporal & MCP Fanatic
Unconference: Early Stage Startups
Monday Nov 17 / 01:35PM PST
Maximizing Success with Limited Time, Resources, and Energy: Lessons from Startup Engineering
Monday Nov 17 / 02:45PM PST
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.
David Gudeman
Co-Founder and CTO @Velocity AI
The Future of Engineering: Mindsets That Matter When Code Isn’t Enough
Monday Nov 17 / 03:55PM PST
Since the first compiler, software has been a stack of human-friendly abstractions translated into machine instructions. The engineers who understood at least some of what was going on under the hood were essential—indispensable even. But now?
The First 100 Days of Code: What to Build, What to Buy, and What to Borrow
Monday Nov 17 / 05:05PM PST
Details coming soon.
