Best practices - Culture, Leadership, Talent, Skills ?

"Best practices" is a very common jargon, and we need to understand its meaning.

Understanding "best practices" is about recognizing its role in improving processes and outcomes across domains.

In my early career, when I used to write code, the review comments I would receive were, "This is not following best practices; go and check." So, there, you gain some awareness of IDE tools, language, and coding approaches.

Early exposure to "best practices" builds foundational skills in tools, languages, and methodologies, shaping your problem-solving approach.

Now, working in a startup, best practices are constrained to a few things:

• The budget,
• The cloud of choice, and
• The talent you work with.

In startups, constraints like budget, cloud resources, and available talent redefine how "best practices" are applied.

The architecture needs to be cost-effective. Startups often run on a very tight budget, so you need to be frugal. You need to make things work, and for every backup or option, you need to pay. Until you reach a certain stage, most startups may rely on credits or cohorts from cloud providers, so it's always about leveraging all of this.

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." – Theodore Roosevelt

Cost-effective architecture demands frugality, creative problem-solving, and strategic leveraging of resources like cloud credits.

Additionally, you may not get top-class talent, and people don't stay for various reasons. It's not just about money. Of course, money is one part of it, but factors like learning opportunities, culture, and trust also matter. I've been working with many freshers, and there's often a knowledge gap between someone from a high-profile institution and someone from a tier 2 or tier 3 college. But it's an investment of time, effort, trust, and mentoring. Things don't happen magically, but by being there, guiding, troubleshooting, and taking it one step at a time, progress happens.

Building talent in startups requires investing in mentorship, bridging knowledge gaps, and fostering trust and a growth mindset.

"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest." – Benjamin Franklin

Sometimes, there are hard choices or debates with the founder: "Oh, we need to be frugal, we need to cut the budget, we need to be fast." These are good points, but every startup I've seen runs on a shoestring budget and faces a lot of trade-offs. Not everyone gets top-class talent. So, I think it has to be a blend of talent, knowing how to gauge and mentor them, and slowly helping them grow.

Balancing speed, frugality, and growth in startups involves tough trade-offs and a focus on developing talent progressively.

I wouldn't say it's easy, but think about it: building the culture, fostering a learning mindset, mentoring, whiteboarding problems, being candid about your strengths and weaknesses, and creating a comfort zone for them to ask questions instead of worrying, "What will they think if I ask?" It's not about just giving orders; it's about being there to troubleshoot with them. Many factors play a role, but the first principles and ground rules still remain the same.

Fostering a learning culture in startups hinges on openness, active mentoring, and emphasizing first principles to solve challenges.

This is a different perspective. You cannot be the master of all, but whatever you know, be willing to share and grow. It's not about whose opinion is right; it's more about frugal ways of building a product, trying to meet the customer's needs, and aligning with the product goals.

"Culture eats strategy for breakfast." – Peter Drucker

True success in startups comes from collaboration, customer focus, and building differentiated products through frugal innovation.

Keep Thinking!!!