Notes on building better software.
Practical thinking on engineering, performance, SEO and product — written by the people who build.
REST vs GraphQL: A Founder’s Guide to API Architecture
A practical, no-hype comparison of REST and GraphQL to help founders and CTOs choose the right API architecture for their product and team.
7 min read
Cloud Cost Optimisation for Startups: A Founder’s Guide
Most startup cloud bills grow from a handful of fixable habits, not real usage. Here's where the waste hides and which levers actually bring costs down.
8 min read
In-App Search: Postgres, Algolia or Elasticsearch?
A practical decision framework for founders choosing between Postgres full-text search, managed services like Algolia and Typesense, and self-hosted Elasticsearch.
8 min read
API Rate Limiting Best Practices for SaaS Founders
A founder's guide to designing API rate limits that protect your infrastructure, keep usage fair, and align with how you actually charge customers.
8 min read
Transactional Email Deliverability: A Founder’s Guide
A practical, engineering-first guide to keeping password resets, receipts and other transactional email out of the spam folder.
7 min read
Background Job Queues: When Startups Actually Need One
Slow requests, flaky third-party calls and dropped emails usually mean it's time for a background job queue. Here's when to add one, how it works, and what tends to go wrong.
8 min read
Software Maintenance Costs: What to Budget After Launch
A practical look at what software maintenance actually costs after launch, and how to budget for it before the build even starts.
8 min read
CI/CD for Startups: How to Ship Software Safely and Fast
A practical, no-nonsense guide to building a CI/CD pipeline that lets a small engineering team ship safely and often, without enterprise overhead.
8 min read
Webhook Reliability: A Practical Guide for SaaS Founders
Webhooks look simple until duplicates, retries and out-of-order events start corrupting your data. Here's how to build ones that hold up in production.
8 min read
SaaS Payment Integration: A Founder’s Implementation Guide
A founder's guide to integrating payments into a SaaS product, covering Stripe vs merchant-of-record platforms, webhook architecture, PCI DSS compliance and subscription billing pitfalls.
8 min readHave a project in mind?
Skip the reading list — let's talk about what you're building.
A senior engineer replies personally — usually within the hour.