This document outlines 10 random things the author learned as a startup CTO and coder. Some of the key lessons include logging all activities to aid debugging, keeping systems simple, involving the team in technology and architecture decisions, choosing technologies that will still be relevant in the future, maintaining clean and tidy code, following defensive programming practices, paying attention to security, writing code that can be maintained long-term, choosing symbol names carefully for readability, and including fun tasks to keep developers engaged and focused.

1. 10 random things learned being a
startup CTO +Coder

2. Who am I?
www.muehlemann-popp.ch/de

3. What startups was I involved?

4. tilllate.com – Nightlife portal with 2Million visitors

5. Quelle: Schweizer Illustrierte, im 2006

6. Sobrado – Broker Workflow tool

7. Wishlist
www.wunschlischte.ch

8. 10 random things I learned…

9. Disclaimer
 It’s not scientific
 It’s not well-structured
 It’s my own opinion

10. 1. Log everything.
• Log pageviews
including GET and
POST variables
• Log every activity of
background tasks in
log files
Debugging is much easier

11. 2. Start simple.
• Keep the system
simple.
• Simple = easy to
understand
• You can always
refactor later
 Make your code friendly
to refactoring (Unit Tests,
Method Names)
If your kid wants a
helicopter, he will be
happy with this :-)

12. 3. Involve your team.
Let the team decide
about technology,
architecture AND
features
Benefits:
The team is more
engaged
More people -> better
solutions
Team discussions M&P Style

13. 4. Don't follow trends too quickly.
Before you choose a
technology, make sure
that it will still exist in 5
years
Tests:
How many books are in
Amazon about the
technology?
How many commits does
a project have?
8-Track players were once top
technology.

14. 5. Keep your code clean an tidy.
• Remove unused code
• Rename methods if the
function of the method
does not correspond
anymore to what the
method does
Cleaning is Fun!

15. 6. Defensive programming!
• Think of everything
that can go wrong and
be ready to handle
those cases

16. 7. Pay attention to security!
• Use the OWASP Top-
10 to check your code
security
https://www.owasp.org
• Filter and validate
incoming data -> only
clean data in your
system (DB, code etc.)

17. 8. Your code will live longer than you expect!
• Be nice to the people
who will work on your
code after you left the
company. They are
engineers like you.
• If you find a mess,
clean it up
• Bad code is not an
excuse to add more
bad code
Even at 80 years old, your code
should be able to do skateboard tricks
:-)

18. 9. Choose your symbol names carefully!
The code should replace a
documentation, so:
• Avoid mistypings (it
looks unprofessional)
• Don’t be afraid of long
names (your IDE will
autocomplete for you)
Be careful as an artist when coding

19. 10. There should always be fun tasks!
Developers which enjoy their
task …
• …are more focused
• …think about the project
even after work
• …will stay longer in your
company
 When choosing projects,
always ask yourself whether
your engineer will enjoy doing
it

20. Thank you!
Silvan Mühlemann
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/silvan.muehlemann