Over the past years, I have managed 100+ engineers. Some of them came from Google, Facebook, Microsoft. Others came from failed startups, 3-person teams, and garage companies.
FAANG engineers think in terms of optimization.
Startup engineers think in terms of survival.
These are completely different skill sets.
A FAANG-style engineer thinks: we should add proper caching, set up monitoring, and plan for horizontal scaling.
A startup-style engineer thinks: let’s ship the feature today and see if anyone even wants it.
Let's say the client needed a simple login system for their MVP.
The FAANG engineer will spend two weeks building OAuth integration, password encryption, session management, and rate limiting.
The startup engineer used Firebase Auth and finished in two hours.
Both solutions work.
One helps you raise funding.
The other might burn your runway.
FAANG engineers focus on tomorrow’s challenges.
Startup engineers focus on today’s challenges.
Here is the rule.
Before product-market fit, you need people who know how to survive.
After product-market fit, you need people who know how to scale.
Hiring the wrong type of engineer at the wrong stage can destroy your startup.
A three-person team does not need Google-level infrastructure.
It needs to stay alive long enough to find product-market fit.
Build quickly. Ship even faster. Optimize later.
P.S. I still love FAANG engineers. They are just not the right fit on day one of a startup.We have more than a hundred startup-native engineers ready to help your team.
P.P.S. - AI assisted with own thoughts.