When I work in a late-stage startup as a CTO, my CEO often looks for small startups for acquisition as an investment. Sometimes, I need to conduct tech due diligence to determine if it is worth buying the company or its team. One day, one of our subsidiary companies requested to hire a former CEO from a startup. They claimed the company was impressive and had valuable assets. I met with them, and the CEO proudly told me they had already built a product-ready solution. However, due to budget constraints and timelines, they wanted to sell it to us. I suspected that the solution might not be fully developed, so I assigned one of my engineers to review their product. At the same time, we arranged a meeting with the former tech lead who designed and built the core product himself. ...

Last time, my company(ex) faced an internal issue with our service provider. We used to have two main features, but one of the service providers decided to close their service in the region. Consequently, we couldn’t use that feature anymore, and eventually, we had to discontinue the associated product/features. When we first heard the news, most team members believed that without that feature, our company’s product would be rendered useless. While there may be some truth to that, at the same time and location, other startups were thriving by focusing solely on the remaining features. Many team members perceived these features as too easy or small or somehow useless. However, they overlooked the fact that these startups excelled in only specific features, securing decent funding rounds based solely on that aspect. ...

When I joined the company as CTO, we already had several engineers from outsourcing companies. I couldn’t help but wonder about their performances and coding skills. One thing that stood out was the frontend teams’ subpar code quality. It was like stumbling upon a virtual playground of messy, confusing code. Driven by curiosity, I decided to dig into the code history, expecting to uncover a treasure trove of impressive projects and technical wizardry. However, what I discovered left me dumbfounded. It turned out that their claims of prior experience were nothing more than a façade. ...

Sometimes, I find myself getting confused about startups, even though I’ve been working with several startups for over 10 years. What defines a startup, and what is the difference between an SMB and startups? In general, startups often have disruptive aspects, whether on the technical or business side, while SMBs are typically considered small businesses. In terms of that, all startups will be SMBs, but I rarely encounter founders who refer to themselves as SMB owners. Most of them probably think of us as founders, not owners. However, I believe there is a key differentiation between startups and SMBs. ...

After moving to Singapore, I often encounter some startups that have product managers. A typical product manager means AKA mini CEO, but in SEA, I think the product manager role is quite different than other countries, especially early startups which they don’t have a CTO or CPO(?). In a startup, usually, a few founders and some early employees are all your company’s assets. Technically speaking, this is smaller than a normal team size (20) in a large or stable company. If founders want to hire a product manager, founders should give trust and permission, but in most cases, I am not sure they do. ...

I often get asked questions like, ‘Why do I want to start my own company?’ or ‘Why did I come here? I graduated from the No. 1 university in Korea and worked for one of the world’s largest global companies for over 10 years. 🎓🌎 My life was quite stable, and I knew how far I could go without any troubles. I never failed to promote, and eventually, I got promoted much faster/higher than any of my other coworkers. 🚀💼 ...

I have been working with outsourcing companies for over 15 years in several countries, dealing with budgets ranging from tiny to several million. Most outsourcing companies often boast about being great partners with expert teams. They may offer various tailored options to suit your needs. However, I have encountered some amusing and dreadful experiences during my career. One of the most memorable and somewhat comical stories involves a project I witnessed while working at a renowned company in Korea. The project aimed to develop a business-oriented solution and was assigned to a team that included my colleague. They decided to engage a relatively large outsourcing company based in India for the project. I remember the project being substantial, spanning over a year in duration. However, as the project approached its final stages, my colleague joined as a junior project manager, despite having no prior experience as an entry-level engineer. This lack of experience made it challenging for him to understand the project’s intricacies. ...