Essential concepts every founder should understand. From fractional CTOs to technical due diligence, learn the terms that matter for building and scaling your startup.
The process of developing application programming interfaces that expose backend data and functionality. Good API design balances usability, performance, and evolvability.
Learn more →Development practices where code changes are automatically tested, integrated, and deployed to production. CI/CD pipelines enable rapid, reliable software delivery.
Learn more →A set of practices combining software development (Dev) and IT operations (Ops) to shorten the development lifecycle and deliver high-quality software continuously.
Learn more →External engineers who integrate fully into a company's existing team, attending standups, using internal tools, and working as if they were full-time employees. Different from staff augmentation in the level of integration and ownership.
Learn more →Direct communication between engineers and company founders without intermediary layers. Common in early-stage startups and embedded engineering models, enabling faster decisions and better product alignment.
Learn more →A measure of how quickly an engineering team can ship features and deliver value. Affected by technical debt, team size, process overhead, and codebase quality.
Learn more →The initial technical hire at a startup, often responsible for building the core product and establishing engineering culture. This hire is crucial as they set technical direction and standards for future team members.
Learn more →An early-stage engineer who joins a startup to build the core product, typically as one of the first 5 technical hires. Founding engineers have significant ownership and influence over technical direction.
Learn more →A part-time Chief Technology Officer who provides executive technical leadership to multiple companies, typically startups that can't yet afford or don't need a full-time CTO.
Learn more →The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act sets standards for protecting sensitive patient health information. Healthcare software must implement specific technical safeguards.
Learn more →The process of recruiting early-stage engineers who will build core product and establish technical foundations. Requires assessing ownership mentality, full-stack capability, and cultural fit alongside technical skills.
Learn more →The process of incorporating large language models (like GPT-4, Claude, or Llama) into software applications for features like chat, summarization, code generation, or content creation.
Learn more →An architectural style where an application is built as a collection of loosely coupled, independently deployable services. Each service handles a specific business capability.
Learn more →An engagement model where engineers are accountable for business outcomes rather than just delivering features or billing hours. Focuses on shipping value, not completing tasks.
Learn more →The degree to which a product satisfies strong market demand. Achieving PMF means customers are buying, using, and recommending your product at a sustainable rate.
Learn more →An AI architecture that combines retrieval systems with large language models. RAG retrieves relevant documents and uses them to ground LLM responses in factual, up-to-date information.
Learn more →Early-stage startup financing typically ranging from $500K to $3M, used to develop the product, hire initial team, and achieve milestones for Series A.
Learn more →The first significant round of venture capital financing, typically $3M to $15M, raised after demonstrating product-market fit and used to scale the business.
Learn more →A security framework that specifies how organizations should manage customer data. SOC 2 Type II certification is often required by enterprise customers and involves an audit of security controls over time.
Learn more →A hiring model where external engineers are added to supplement an existing team, typically managed by the client. Unlike embedded teams, staff augmentation focuses on filling skill gaps rather than outcome ownership.
Learn more →The duties of a Chief Technology Officer at a startup, including technical strategy, architecture decisions, engineering hiring, vendor selection, security, and communicating technology to investors and the board.
Learn more →The values, practices, and norms that define how engineering teams work at early-stage companies. Includes bias toward action, ownership mentality, minimal process, and direct communication with founders.
Learn more →A startup co-founder with engineering expertise who leads product development and technical strategy. Technical co-founders typically receive significant equity and are involved in company decisions beyond just engineering.
Learn more →The implied cost of future rework caused by choosing a quick solution now instead of a better approach that would take longer. Like financial debt, technical debt accumulates interest over time.
Learn more →The process of evaluating a company's technology, engineering team, and technical practices during fundraising, acquisition, or investment. Covers code quality, architecture, security, and team capabilities.
Learn more →Two distinct technical leadership roles: CTOs focus on technology strategy, architecture, and external communication, while VPs of Engineering focus on team management, process, and execution. Early-stage startups often combine these roles.
Learn more →Our fractional CTOs love nerding out on engineering strategy. Book a call to discuss any term in depth.
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