For today’s episode, Mike is joined by Marcus Fontoura, Azure Core CTO, Technical Fellow at Microsoft, holder of 50 patents and the author of A Platform Mindset. Marcus is certainly a man who knows how to scale tech without breaking it.

If your startup is taking off so fast that you can’t keep up or are drowning in bugs and relying on hot fixes and workarounds to hold things together, this episode is for you. It teaches you how to stop scaling your technical debt and redirect your energy and resources into scaling success.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Marcus helped to shape some of the planet´s fastest scaling systems, including Google and Yahoo.
• Disconnected systems slow you down more than missing features. Decide on the technology, platforms, and tools early and get everyone to use them.
• When you tell developers which tools they will use from day 1 it frees up bandwidth for them to create faster and avoids resentment when you have no choice but to standardise the platforms used.
• Recognise when it is time to move from the validation stage to the professionalisation stage.
• Invest in infrastructure and tools that are easy to scale as demand rises.
• Avoid over engineering.
• Make sure all of your systems integrate to avoid silos and repeating work. Marcus explains how.
• Most startups (75%) fail because they scale too fast.
• On average, a day per week per developer is wasted fixing poorly planned and implemented code etc.
• Creating a high performing team culture is the key to fast and efficient growth.
• People don´t change easily that is why you need to cultivate sound cultural values, communication, trust, collaboration, willingness to take feedback etc.
• Protect your company values even when hyper scaling.
• Don’t hire brilliant jerks, they pull everyone down.
• Cultural skills are hard to teach, but most tech skills can be taught in months.
• The CEO needs to be a good role model.
• Build trust and collaboration between teams.

BEST MOMENTS

1:09 "The fix? It starts with the platform mindset."

4:30 "Tech growth equals preparing for scaling."

16.33 "Developers waste 23% of their time…reworking bad past solutions."

30.00 "Recognise what you don´t know and pull in people who can actually help you."

43.12 "Understand the phase you are in… and scale accordingly."

50.11 "Any system you build should have inbound and outbound APIs."

54.25 "The culture enables a lot of efficiency when teams trust each other."

1.08.11 "When you are ready for hyper growth…hire the best talent you can get."

1.16.30 “Have a growth mindset to build a culture to leverage platforms for impact.”

ABOUT THE GUEST

https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcusfontoura

Multipliers Book - https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/Liz-Wiseman/author/B00369WNUW

Ideal Team Member - https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/Patrick-Lencioni/author/B001ILFMB2

ABOUT THE HOST

Meet Mike, a seasoned tech entrepreneur and visionary with over two and a half decades of invaluable experience in founding and scaling successful tech start-ups. Mike brings a wealth of firsthand knowledge, and a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and tech professionals.

As a host, Mike is dedicated to sharing actionable insights, strategies, and stories gathered from conversations with industry leaders, innovators, and experts. With a remarkable ability to distil practical wisdom from guests, Mike curates engaging discussions that resonate with both aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals.