As a busy marketing consultant, I meet with too many tech stack prisoners.

The biggest problems I see:

• The tool is cookie-cutter.
• The tool bottle-necks growth.
• The tool is based on ancient tech.

A modern tech stack should take care of the dirty clockwork for you — not be the dirty clockwork.

It doesn’t matter if it looks like a newfangled Ferrari from the outside if what’s under the hood is actually 1995 Honda Civic parts.

What I see way too often is a CEO handing off all tech stack responsibility to the CTO without knowing a thing about the limitations.

Many of these CTOs recommend a “universal” tech stack.

I probably don’t have to tell you this, but if a CTO walks in the door telling you to use a “universal” tech stack — you should probably look for a new CTO.

• Every startup has different needs.
• A universal tech stack doesn’t exist.

The real reason many CTOs don’t want to switch to more modern solutions is likely because they’ve been using the same dusty stack for years and they don’t have the balls to do some learning.

Before trusting anyone to pour new tools like cereal into your tech stack ask yourself the following questions.

Does the tool scale?

Look for tools that grow with you.

The same tech stack that brought you from A to B will not always bring you from B to C. And that’s okay for little things, but you don’t want to be migrating your payment gateway or database every 6 months for example.

The best tools to add to your stack are those that support little dreams and big dreams. Stripe is a brilliant example of a tool that is modular enough to do just that. Whether you’re just starting out or if people call your brand a Unicorn — Stripe grows with you.

Does the tool create a better user experience?

A chainsaw is cool.

But cutting a chicken with it is a bloody mess.

Whether the tool is seen by your customers or by your team, it needs to make their lives easier — not harder. It also shouldn’t take a Ph.D. to master.

Not sure if a tool is user-friendly or not?

Look at the interface without clicking around.

• If you intuitively know what it does, it’s user-friendly.
• If you don’t it’s probably not that user-friendly.

Does the tool allow you to pivot fast?

Say you want to do a full rebrand tomorrow with a:

• New name
• New logo
• New fonts
• New colors
• New tone

How long will it take to completely turn your brand upside down?

With the right tech stack, it should—at least technically — be possible within 24 hours.

Does the tool allow you to act on customer data?

Many tech stacks show data.

Few actually allow you to act on that data.

Instead of just showing you the problem areas, does the tool actually help you fix them, or is it just data C-suite executives use to brag about on the golf course?

The best tools allow you to see, fix, and prevent problems.

Does the tool sync in real-time with the rest of your tech stack?

Latency is real.

Just ask the lady who booked a seat in the movie theatre online while the man who chews popcorn like a hippo booked that exact seat at the POS counter for Jurassic World.

There is no more excuse not to have real-time syncing.

If a customer gives her email on the live chat on your website, the data needs to be synced seamlessly to your CRM. If a customer made an in-app purchase, inventory data needs to instantly update stock on your website through a real-time database.

A 5-second latency might not seem crazy at the beginning, but before you know it, you’re sitting with a massive problem.

Does the tool have (friendly) cross-channel API, Webhook, and Zapier integrations?

Nobody likes to spend hours going through terrible API documentation.

And no marketing team wants to wait for some nocturnal back-end wizard to finally crack the code that connects one tool with another.

A Zapier connection gets the ship moving — at least until the back-end gods responded to the nocturnal creature’s pleas.

Does the tool have a supportive community around it?

There’s nothing worse than having to search every inch of the internet not to be able to find the answer you’re looking for.

Does the tool allow for custom experiences or is it cookie-cutter?

Some tools may look pretty, but they are cookie-cutter.

Shopify is an example that comes to mind.

Do you really with your online store to look like everyone else’s? If not you better have a brilliant team of developers at hand to update the living heck out of every experience.

Your tech stack should allow you to stand out from the noise.

Does the tool use growing or aging technology?

Open Google Trends.

Type in the tool/technology’s name.

• If interest is growing, that’s a good sign.
• If interest is fading, you probably should look at why it’s losing market share.

I find that there’s usually a new competitor making life a little easier.

You don’t want to look back in 5 years sitting with ancient tech without updated support.

If I can leave you with one final piece of advice, make sure every tool you use allows you to seamlessly migrate when you decide to move on in the future.

I’m curious, what’s in your tech stack for:

• Project management
• Marketing/CRM
• Backend/CMS
• Frontend

If this piece resonated with you and you’d like help understanding what modern tech stack will suit your brand’s needs— let’s have a stress-free chat: jano@likeflare.com.

Receive my very best articles in your inbox while you’re away.

As a busy marketing consultant, I meet with too many tech stack prisoners.

The biggest problems I see:

• The tool is cookie-cutter.
• The tool bottle-necks growth.
• The tool is based on ancient tech.

A modern tech stack should take care of the dirty clockwork for you — not be the dirty clockwork.

It doesn’t matter if it looks like a newfangled Ferrari from the outside if what’s under the hood is actually 1995 Honda Civic parts.

What I see way too often is a CEO handing off all tech stack responsibility to the CTO without knowing a thing about the limitations.

Many of these CTOs recommend a “universal” tech stack.

I probably don’t have to tell you this, but if a CTO walks in the door telling you to use a “universal” tech stack — you should probably look for a new CTO.

• Every startup has different needs.
• A universal tech stack doesn’t exist.

The real reason many CTOs don’t want to switch to more modern solutions is likely because they’ve been using the same dusty stack for years and they don’t have the balls to do some learning.

Before trusting anyone to pour new tools like cereal into your tech stack ask yourself the following questions.

Does the tool scale?

Look for tools that grow with you.

The same tech stack that brought you from A to B will not always bring you from B to C. And that’s okay for little things, but you don’t want to be migrating your payment gateway or database every 6 months for example.

The best tools to add to your stack are those that support little dreams and big dreams. Stripe is a brilliant example of a tool that is modular enough to do just that. Whether you’re just starting out or if people call your brand a Unicorn — Stripe grows with you.

Does the tool create a better user experience?

A chainsaw is cool.

But cutting a chicken with it is a bloody mess.

Whether the tool is seen by your customers or by your team, it needs to make their lives easier — not harder. It also shouldn’t take a Ph.D. to master.

Not sure if a tool is user-friendly or not?

Look at the interface without clicking around.

• If you intuitively know what it does, it’s user-friendly.
• If you don’t it’s probably not that user-friendly.

Does the tool allow you to pivot fast?

Say you want to do a full rebrand tomorrow with a:

• New name
• New logo
• New fonts
• New colors
• New tone

How long will it take to completely turn your brand upside down?

With the right tech stack, it should—at least technically — be possible within 24 hours.

Does the tool allow you to act on customer data?

Many tech stacks show data.

Few actually allow you to act on that data.

Instead of just showing you the problem areas, does the tool actually help you fix them, or is it just data C-suite executives use to brag about on the golf course?

The best tools allow you to see, fix, and prevent problems.

Does the tool sync in real-time with the rest of your tech stack?

Latency is real.

Just ask the lady who booked a seat in the movie theatre online while the man who chews popcorn like a hippo booked that exact seat at the POS counter for Jurassic World.

There is no more excuse not to have real-time syncing.

If a customer gives her email on the live chat on your website, the data needs to be synced seamlessly to your CRM. If a customer made an in-app purchase, inventory data needs to instantly update stock on your website through a real-time database.

A 5-second latency might not seem crazy at the beginning, but before you know it, you’re sitting with a massive problem.

Does the tool have (friendly) cross-channel API, Webhook, and Zapier integrations?

Nobody likes to spend hours going through terrible API documentation.

And no marketing team wants to wait for some nocturnal back-end wizard to finally crack the code that connects one tool with another.

A Zapier connection gets the ship moving — at least until the back-end gods responded to the nocturnal creature’s pleas.

Does the tool have a supportive community around it?

There’s nothing worse than having to search every inch of the internet not to be able to find the answer you’re looking for.

Does the tool allow for custom experiences or is it cookie-cutter?

Some tools may look pretty, but they are cookie-cutter.

Shopify is an example that comes to mind.

Do you really with your online store to look like everyone else’s? If not you better have a brilliant team of developers at hand to update the living heck out of every experience.

Your tech stack should allow you to stand out from the noise.

Does the tool use growing or aging technology?

Open Google Trends.

Type in the tool/technology’s name.

• If interest is growing, that’s a good sign.
• If interest is fading, you probably should look at why it’s losing market share.

I find that there’s usually a new competitor making life a little easier.

You don’t want to look back in 5 years sitting with ancient tech without updated support.

If I can leave you with one final piece of advice, make sure every tool you use allows you to seamlessly migrate when you decide to move on in the future.

I’m curious, what’s in your tech stack for:

• Project management
• Marketing/CRM
• Backend/CMS
• Frontend

If this piece resonated with you and you’d like help understanding what modern tech stack will suit your brand’s needs— let’s have a stress-free chat: jano@likeflare.com.

Receive my very best articles in your inbox while you’re away.

A year ago, my tummy was churning with anxiety about quitting my safe job.

My office was a 6-minute drive from home and my company was financially strong and the epitome of what a ‘secure job’ means. No layoffs during the pandemic as well, which was a sticky factor.

And here I was, a young 25-years-young with under 3 years of work experience, wanting to be a writer.

Sounds stupid, right?

Here’s what I’ve learnt so far about this path and life.

The beginning of everything starts from inside

If your mind isn’t hard-wired to a growth mindset, forget success of any kind. Being self-employed is about:

• uncertainty
• failing often
• showing up through it all

It takes an abundance mindset to do this. It takes grit to show up and be creative even when you don’t feel like it.

Don’t depend on others to pay your bills

Including your company. We’ve been seeing layoffs for the last two years, haven't we?

After my first client who I was depending on ghosted me, I realised I will never depend on one client for impacting my monthly finances. I didn’t even want to depend on one source, which is why I started a course and made digital products.

Start diversifying as early as possible.

Weed out sub-average pals

You don’t need most people in your life. When you become mindful of how finite time is, you might as well spend it with people you love and who genuinely mean a lot to you.

Weeding out surface-level friends makes you more energetic.

Be open to the idea of possibilities

Blame it for being naïve or overly optimistic, but I’ve always believed that good things are coming my way and I will receive nothing but excellence.

Even when things go downhill, this thought keeps me going.

In Hindi, we have a saying,

“‘उम्मीद पर दुनिया कायम है”

This translates to — the world lives on hope.

Always be hopeful because a negative mind attracts nothing good anyway. So why not.

Do the work, forget the results

I stopped getting affected by the results early in my journey after I read Seth Godin’s The Practice: Shipping Creative Work.

The results aren’t in my control. The process is. Why waste precious time whining?

People pay only for these 3 things

1. What you solve for
2. How you make them feel
3. What returns do you put on the table

As long as you direct your products or services towards this, you will make money.

I’m not a salesperson and don’t know the theories and concepts of Sales, but this works.

Talking about money…

There’s enough money to be made

When I was earning X last year, I knew that earning 2X will take me at least 5 years. The amount seemed big and unattainable.

Now, with time, money isn’t the motivator because it's an unsustainable motivation. It’s not the reason you show up every day, and it eventually finds its way to you when you give out value.

Now, it all feels attainable.

The only limitation is your mind because the world has enough money.

How much you make is on you

As a writer, I could either:

1. Take lots of clients. Maybe open an agency later and even get passive income by outsourcing gigs to others.
2. Take one or two good clients.

The second one comes is what I’ve aimed for since day one. It’s also more stress-free because a high-paying client doesn’t negotiate or make your life hell. They respect creativity.

If you’re a freelancer, you have this choice.

Information diet is crucial

I still don’t get how people spend an hour watching people dancing on videos. It’s like feeding your brain absolute crap and expecting rainbows from life.

What you take in is what you’ll put out in the world.

Protect your energy and be conscious of your consumption, especially online.

Family first

I’ve noticed a pattern.

When I’m stressed out or getting close to burnout, I spend less time with my family, even when I’m not working. When I’m in balance, I’m spending more time and laugh a lot more.

Striking a balance is something I am still working on, so I can put my family first.

I don’t want to be a CEO

I’m lazy, and I truly don’t desire a stressed-out life.

When I solo-travelled to Europe at 21, I realised how we’re such a tiny speck in this world and how beautiful it feels to just live. I realised that material isn’t the source of happiness and titles and tags are just a construct by society.

Only who you are defines you, and nothing else.

It’s then that I decided I’ll prioritise living and experiences — this is being rich, according to me.

I want to take out more time to do things I enjoy instead of making a graph go up all my life.

I don’t want to be a CEO of a big company. I don’t even desire to open an organisation that makes millions.

A simple and driven life is what I strive for.

Reading The Minimalist Entrepreneur by Sahil Lavingia validated what I was feeling.

This makes you richer than money

In a few weeks, I’m taking a 4-week long holiday. I wouldn't have imagined doing this or afford it with my full-time job.

I won’t carry my laptop and will be away from work without an ounce of worry about my career.

Owning your time is a powerful feeling.

‘Enough’ is a state of mind

I slip out of gratitude sometimes even though I’ve been writing a gratitude journal (10 things I’m grateful for) every day since 2017.

Now, I’m moving towards making peace that enough is a state of mind and no amount of anything can be enough if you look at it that way.

Mindset matters, always.

The only fuel to the fire

Purpose comes to you when you look within.

Purpose is fuelled when it helps improve lives.

Find the two and you’ll be an unstoppable force.

Most people will never find their purpose because in this hyperstimulated world, they aren’t taking out time to look within.

Don’t be like most people.

Consider everything as an experiment

That way, either it works out, or it doesn’t. It’s not a big deal.

It was such random experiences that enabled me to side hustle, quit, and start a business.

The power of trying new things for fun is underrated. You never know where they’ll lead you!

It’s a good life

I feel good every single day. Sunday evenings aren’t filled with anxiety. I’m pumped to create, and I’m happy doing what I do.

It’s a good life.

The one I’m grateful for multiple times each day.

Click here to grab your free Side Hustler Checklist. Enjoy reading on Medium? Buy a membership for full access.

A year ago, my tummy was churning with anxiety about quitting my safe job.

My office was a 6-minute drive from home and my company was financially strong and the epitome of what a ‘secure job’ means. No layoffs during the pandemic as well, which was a sticky factor.

And here I was, a young 25-years-young with under 3 years of work experience, wanting to be a writer.

Sounds stupid, right?

Here’s what I’ve learnt so far about this path and life.

The beginning of everything starts from inside

If your mind isn’t hard-wired to a growth mindset, forget success of any kind. Being self-employed is about:

• uncertainty
• failing often
• showing up through it all

It takes an abundance mindset to do this. It takes grit to show up and be creative even when you don’t feel like it.

Don’t depend on others to pay your bills

Including your company. We’ve been seeing layoffs for the last two years, haven't we?

After my first client who I was depending on ghosted me, I realised I will never depend on one client for impacting my monthly finances. I didn’t even want to depend on one source, which is why I started a course and made digital products.

Start diversifying as early as possible.

Weed out sub-average pals

You don’t need most people in your life. When you become mindful of how finite time is, you might as well spend it with people you love and who genuinely mean a lot to you.

Weeding out surface-level friends makes you more energetic.

Be open to the idea of possibilities

Blame it for being naïve or overly optimistic, but I’ve always believed that good things are coming my way and I will receive nothing but excellence.

Even when things go downhill, this thought keeps me going.

In Hindi, we have a saying,

“‘उम्मीद पर दुनिया कायम है”

This translates to — the world lives on hope.

Always be hopeful because a negative mind attracts nothing good anyway. So why not.

Do the work, forget the results

I stopped getting affected by the results early in my journey after I read Seth Godin’s The Practice: Shipping Creative Work.

The results aren’t in my control. The process is. Why waste precious time whining?

People pay only for these 3 things

1. What you solve for
2. How you make them feel
3. What returns do you put on the table

As long as you direct your products or services towards this, you will make money.

I’m not a salesperson and don’t know the theories and concepts of Sales, but this works.

Talking about money…

There’s enough money to be made

When I was earning X last year, I knew that earning 2X will take me at least 5 years. The amount seemed big and unattainable.

Now, with time, money isn’t the motivator because it's an unsustainable motivation. It’s not the reason you show up every day, and it eventually finds its way to you when you give out value.

Now, it all feels attainable.

The only limitation is your mind because the world has enough money.

How much you make is on you

As a writer, I could either:

1. Take lots of clients. Maybe open an agency later and even get passive income by outsourcing gigs to others.
2. Take one or two good clients.

The second one comes is what I’ve aimed for since day one. It’s also more stress-free because a high-paying client doesn’t negotiate or make your life hell. They respect creativity.

If you’re a freelancer, you have this choice.

Information diet is crucial

I still don’t get how people spend an hour watching people dancing on videos. It’s like feeding your brain absolute crap and expecting rainbows from life.

What you take in is what you’ll put out in the world.

Protect your energy and be conscious of your consumption, especially online.

Family first

I’ve noticed a pattern.

When I’m stressed out or getting close to burnout, I spend less time with my family, even when I’m not working. When I’m in balance, I’m spending more time and laugh a lot more.

Striking a balance is something I am still working on, so I can put my family first.

I don’t want to be a CEO

I’m lazy, and I truly don’t desire a stressed-out life.

When I solo-travelled to Europe at 21, I realised how we’re such a tiny speck in this world and how beautiful it feels to just live. I realised that material isn’t the source of happiness and titles and tags are just a construct by society.

Only who you are defines you, and nothing else.

It’s then that I decided I’ll prioritise living and experiences — this is being rich, according to me.

I want to take out more time to do things I enjoy instead of making a graph go up all my life.

I don’t want to be a CEO of a big company. I don’t even desire to open an organisation that makes millions.

A simple and driven life is what I strive for.

Reading The Minimalist Entrepreneur by Sahil Lavingia validated what I was feeling.

This makes you richer than money

In a few weeks, I’m taking a 4-week long holiday. I wouldn't have imagined doing this or afford it with my full-time job.

I won’t carry my laptop and will be away from work without an ounce of worry about my career.

Owning your time is a powerful feeling.

‘Enough’ is a state of mind

I slip out of gratitude sometimes even though I’ve been writing a gratitude journal (10 things I’m grateful for) every day since 2017.

Now, I’m moving towards making peace that enough is a state of mind and no amount of anything can be enough if you look at it that way.

Mindset matters, always.

The only fuel to the fire

Purpose comes to you when you look within.

Purpose is fuelled when it helps improve lives.

Find the two and you’ll be an unstoppable force.

Most people will never find their purpose because in this hyperstimulated world, they aren’t taking out time to look within.

Don’t be like most people.

Consider everything as an experiment

That way, either it works out, or it doesn’t. It’s not a big deal.

It was such random experiences that enabled me to side hustle, quit, and start a business.

The power of trying new things for fun is underrated. You never know where they’ll lead you!

It’s a good life

I feel good every single day. Sunday evenings aren’t filled with anxiety. I’m pumped to create, and I’m happy doing what I do.

It’s a good life.

The one I’m grateful for multiple times each day.

Click here to grab your free Side Hustler Checklist. Enjoy reading on Medium? Buy a membership for full access.