I wanted to share some of my ~spicy~ takes that apply best to developer and infra-centric, earlier-stage startups. As always, there’s nuance to all advice, so apply with care. Don’t do unlimited free tiers If you’re running a cloud service, offer a free trial period with a time limit. Limits based on the number ofContinue reading “My ~spicy~ startup takes”
Category Archives: Startups
Lessons from 2023
2023 felt both long and short for me at the same time! It was a year of professional changes, and I wanted to capture some of my learnings. My thoughts in no particular order
$how me the money
One thing about me – if I’m ever trying to learn something new, my first instinct is to check if there are good books available on the topic. Case in point, I once read: “How to Buy a House in California” and I would recommend (the book anyway; the decision is between you and god).Continue reading “$how me the money”
Two months of life at a startup
After deciding to leave big tech, I wanted to join a startup because I wanted to ~learn~. I’m pleasantly shocked at how much learning I’m doing every day. I’ve had to learn stuff at previous jobs but it was almost always limited to learning a new technology (Heroku, Kubernetes, Borg, whatever). At my current job,Continue reading “Two months of life at a startup”
Mo cloud, mo problems
I’m always surprised when I find infrastructure problems that transcend company size and scale. A few have been coming up for me recently, all of which make me think there’s a startup idea or two in here somewhere. The first is capacity management. Most cloud consumption models today are consumption based, i.e. you pay-as-you-go forContinue reading “Mo cloud, mo problems”
Influencer marketing
I happened to see the following tweet storm by Brianne Kimmel on Twitter and it got me thinking (spoiler alert: I agree with her). 1/ I'm calling it now, we'll see the end of influencer marketing this year. Brands are tired of working with influencers. Consumers are tired of seeing fake posts. Influencers are tiredContinue reading “Influencer marketing”
Fake it till you make it
I recently met with my friend and former colleague, and over a few drinks we started talking about how our careers have panned out. While I’m fairly happy with what I’ve done so far, his trajectory has been extraordinary. When I asked him how he did it, he told me Perception is everything. He startedContinue reading “Fake it till you make it”
Both Sides of the Table
I’m going to be a bit of a fangirl here so bear with me. Twitter is proving to be a great source of reading material, and I’m starting to see the appeal of it now more than ever. I’ve also come to the inevitable conclusion that there is no single formula to become a great entrepreneur,Continue reading “Both Sides of the Table”
Moonshot thinking
I was at Google’s Women Techmakers event this Saturday and it was a somewhat productive way to spend my day. I did expect it to be better than it was, but as always, that’s a case of my own mismanaged expectations. There were several speakers at the event, some of them good and some not soContinue reading “Moonshot thinking”
Words with Friends
I recently started playing Words with Friends on my phone and I quite like it apart from the pesky ads that show up after every single move. It was an interesting study for me though, so I dug a bit deeper and learnt about the gaming industry in the process. Every single number in there wasContinue reading “Words with Friends”