Avoid Premature Optimizations

Premature optimization refers to optimizing a software system's performance or resource usage too early in development before the system's requirements and design are fully understood.
It is generally considered a poor software engineering practice.
The term "premature optimization" was popularized by Donald Knuth, a renowned computer scientist, who famously said, "Premature optimization is the root of all evil (or at least most of it) in programming."
The main idea is to prioritize writing working code first and then optimize the performance once the system is functional and its bottlenecks are identified.
This approach ensures that development resources are spent effectively and that optimizations are made where they will have the most significant impact.

Do Things that Don't Scale

In the early stages of a startup, founders must engage in activities that don't scale to gain traction, understand their users, and provide personalized service.
Successful startups like Stripe and Airbnb have adopted hands-on approaches, such as recruiting users manually and focusing on small-scale growth.
This enables them to gain valuable insights, improve their product, and establish credibility.
Though these efforts may not scale, they help establish a core group of satisfied users, ultimately contributing to long-term success.
As the startup grows, the lessons learned during these early stages become integral to the company's culture and approach to customer service.
Thus, founders should be bold in doing unscalable things initially to secure rapid growth and success later on.