If you are the technical co-founder or early engineering lead at a startup, and you want to talk about your microservices, hand-rolled CI/CD, in-house monitoring stack, or any other unique part of your stack, I will say: Cool. Let’s riff. Take me deep, I’m ready.

But there’s something I’m likely to tell you in return, something I’ll probably insist you’re overlooking and need to internalize as soon as possible: Your technology stack is not the product.

It’s easy to get too focused on our tech and tools. Sometimes we think it’s our competitive advantage, other times it’s merely personal fascination and intellectual stimulation. This post is a good reminder:

A mindset of technology being the means, not the end, is uncomfortable. But it will help you stay focused on what matters most (the product and your customers), avoid wasteful misadventures, and maximize the company’s chance of success.