The easiest way to get derailed in software is misunderstanding the customer’s actual problem and then build the wrong solution. Deeply focusing on what a customer is trying to accomplish, and building a far better, faster, or cheaper solution to the problem is fundamental.

Choosing the right technical architecture to solve a particular customer problem is one of the most foundational things you do when building products. The customer rarely cares, but the problem does!

Remember: customers rarely care about how novel your technology is, only what problems it solves for them. Never lose sight of that as a startup.

Feedback loops drive almost all innovation in tech. Getting a product out to customers and learning what the next adjacency or enhancement is drives all value creation. The key is to figure out what strategy, architecture, and business model best accelerates these feedback loops.

Whether you’re a small startup or large company, the rate of decisions you can make that turn into value for customers is one of the most important drivers of success. Always good to reduce the number of dependencies to getting those decisions made.

One of the easiest pitfalls in tech is accidentally losing sight of the customer problem. Just figure out the customer problem and build the best solution. That’s it!

No matter what you’re building, always focus on what’s the best solution for the end-customer. That’s all that matters. *Anything* else will be a distraction or veer you off course.

We have entered a supercycle of multiple exciting new technology trends. Just remember: users don’t care about your underlying technology choices, only how well you solve the problem for them. And whoever solves the problem best wins.