Stop looking for the one stack that lasts forever. Pick tools that fit your size and risk tolerance now, partner with startups to move fast, and swap them out as you grow. Over-engineering for future scale slows you down.
Evolve your stack. I often get questions about people who want to know what the scalable solution for X is. They want to do it right this time and not have to go redo it later. And I gotta tell you, that's just not the right mental model for it. What you want to do instead is have the stack that's right for you today. Work with the vendors that work right for you today. You're relatively small. You have a high risk tolerance. You can afford to work with some really cool startup that's coming up with some new ways of doing things. And then that allows you to learn faster, to build more both knowledge and reputation. But then later, as you move up, you're going to find the same things that were working for you before are not working for you now. Maybe the technology doesn't do the things you do technically, maybe they don't have the right kinds of certifications, maybe it doesn't have the trust relationship with the customers. Any of those can be good reasons for you to say there is something new I should be doing. I should be reconsidering who my vendors are and what my stack is. And you're just going to evolve. You having started with those vendors would have been an error because you would have gone more slowly at the beginning and not reached this point. So permit yourself to evolve. That is going to be how you grow faster and get to where you want to go.
