Technical Decisions Every Non-Technical Founder Should Understand

You Don't Need to Code

Non-technical founders often feel lost in technical discussions. But you don't need to understand the code—you need to understand the trade-offs.

The Big Decisions

1. Build vs Buy

• Build when it's your core differentiator

• Buy when it's commodity functionality (auth, payments, analytics)

• Rule of thumb: If you can buy it for less than 2 weeks of dev time, buy it

2. Tech Stack

• Don't chase trends - Proven technology means more talent and resources

• Match to your team - The best tech is what your team knows

• Consider the ecosystem - Popular = more libraries, tutorials, help

3. Monolith vs Microservices

• Start monolith - Always. Microservices are for scaling problems you don't have yet.

• Split later - When you have clear scaling bottlenecks

4. Cloud Provider

• Start with one - AWS, GCP, or Azure. Don't overthink it.

• Use managed services - Your time is too valuable for DevOps

Red Flags in Technical Discussions

• "We need to rebuild everything" - Usually not true

• "This will take 6 months" - Break it down or simplify scope

• "We need microservices from day one" - Almost never true

• "We should build our own [commodity feature]" - Rarely worth it

Questions to Ask Your Technical Team

• What's the simplest solution that works?

• What are we optimizing for: speed, cost, or scalability?

• What's the cost of being wrong?

• How long until we can learn from users?

The Bottom Line

Good technical decisions optimize for learning and flexibility, not perfection. When in doubt, choose the option that lets you ship faster and change course easier.