Scaling Up, Not Burning Out: Unpacking Startup Growth, Technical Debt, and Platform Mindset

Your startup just went viral—users are pouring in, Slack is blowing up, and the thrill is real. But behind the scenes, your developers are patching code faster than you refresh the revenue dashboard, and decisions that felt clever three months ago now feel like ticking time bombs. I remember when my first company hit its growth spurt: what we called 'cr…