Mike Veerman

Mike Veerman

18 posts
Building a customer support machine: a pragmatic approach for startups

Building a customer support machine: a pragmatic approach for startups

When customer support becomes a blocker for engineering progress, it’s time to build more than just your product—you need to build your support infrastructure. This article explains how to scale support before chaos kills your velocity.

🌶️ SaaS startups should never use microservices. Like, never-ever.

🌶️ SaaS startups should never use microservices. Like, never-ever.

Many SaaS startups over-engineer their architecture with microservices. Here's why that's usually a costly mistake—and what to do instead.

Why you shouldn't let customers pay for features

Why you shouldn't let customers pay for features

Selling bespoke features to customers might seem profitable, but it changes your SaaS business model. Instead of a scalable product, you become a service provider, stuck maintaining one-off features. Learn why this approach is risky and how to build for long-term success.

How to start growing talent in-house

How to start growing talent in-house

Startups thrive on rapid growth, but when it comes to scaling talent, they often hit a wall. Enterprise-style feedback systems sound great—until they become a productivity sink. So how can you build structured talent development without overcomplicating things?

How to stop depending on that one developer

How to stop depending on that one developer

Key Person Risk (KPR) arises when a team relies too heavily on one specialist. To reduce this, shift their role to an advisor. The specialist guides, others do the work. It’s slow at first, but builds team knowledge, confidence, and better documentation.

Do we even need a moat?

Do we even need a moat?

A technical moat is often seen as a product's defensive edge, but does every product really need one? For AI products, the choice between building proprietary tech or leveraging existing solutions like OpenAI is complex. True value lies in solving customer problems—not just in owning the technology.

Scaling the A team

Scaling the A team

In recent audits, I've noticed a less obvious pattern: overly talented start-up teams. While smart, experienced teams thrive early on, they struggle to scale. Scaling requires structure, documentation, and room to grow talent in-house.

Pragmatic ways of keeping documentation up to date

Pragmatic ways of keeping documentation up to date

While documentation is vital, too much can lead to outdated or duplicate content. To manage it, consolidate docs in one platform, separate live from historical content, archive outdated ones, move technical docs closer to code, and encourage sharing links to foster a documentation culture.

Infrastructure is a business decision

Infrastructure is a business decision

Learn how non-technical metrics can help control operational costs in tech startups. This article explains the importance of understanding real infrastructure costs and the cost of change to prevent your business expenses from spiraling out of control.

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