Founding or early engineer at two startups, Avoma and Privyr. When you are that early in a team, there are no handoffs. You own the problem from the first line of code to production. That shaped how I work: commit to it, scope it right, and deliver.
Early stage means something barely running, rough architecture, quick decisions made under pressure. The job is to take that, stabilize it, build on it properly, and ship something people can rely on. Not just writing features but owning the full picture.
12+ years in, the pattern is consistent: understand the problem first, then build. Moving fast does not mean being careless. It means knowing what to defer and what to get right the first time. I have seen products break in production. That shapes you. Strong bias toward maintainable code, systems you can actually debug, and commitments that get kept. AI tooling is now part of how I work, using it to move faster without cutting corners on quality.
I work well with small teams where ownership is clear and the bar is high. Direct communication, no status theatre. If something is blocked I say so early, if something is wrong I would rather fix it than hide it. The goal is always a working product, not just working code.
The code ships or it does not matter.