The Startup-Killing Tech Shortcut Most Entrepreneurs Take

Low-tech solutions make it easy to go fast and break stuff, and that’s a problem

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If you’re going to use low-tech solutions within your business, in any capacity, whether it’s building an app from scratch on a no-code platform or integrating a pre-built credit card form into your order flow, there’s one golden rule you need to stick to:

Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you will do it right.

Tech can be tough to do right, ask any developer. And starting and scaling a company means operating at breakneck speed. So whether you’re building your own software or just using a small amount of off-the-shelf tech to gain a competitive edge, implementing that technology properly can slow you down.

But poorly or hastily implemented tech can leave you in the worst position imaginable.

I re-learned that lesson the hard way last month when a single hacker almost took my entire business down. And I couldn’t stop it.

Low-Tech Is a Startup Enabler

Why does it happen? Why do entrepreneurs, even experienced technical entrepreneurs, get the tech wrong?

The short answer is because it’s so easy to make the trade-off to get to market quickly.

Like I said, getting the tech right takes time that a scaling startup doesn’t always have. Furthermore, getting the tech right also costs a ton of money, because developers — the good ones anyway — aren’t cheap.

This is why I love no-code and low-code solutions. They’ve evolved to a point that I can dream up whatever I want and implement it, even go to market with it, in a matter of days for a matter of a few dollars.

However, even when you solve the time and cost problems, technology always seems to lead down paths that wind up with you building too much functionality too quickly. When you’re living by the mantra of “crawl-walk-run,” there’s always the temptation with technology to try to walk before you’re ready. Then you fall on your face.

This is natural. It’s par for the course. It’s go-fast-and-break-stuff. That’s fine. But sometimes it leads…