Hello fellow engineers,
It is a great time to be an engineer. The industry values our contribution, and we hold the power to create. It is privilege to be part of an organisation where problems are solved via the product more than it is via operationally. Startups are categorised in industries, such as Ed-Tech, Fin-Tech, where “tech” is the common aspect, and hence it is agnostic.
Yes, it is true the products you are building are being used for a particular purpose, but come to think of it, the industry and the users are just one of the many inputs to a complex function that you are writing. Let me explain in detail.
Does your organisation which is fintech, have a NoSQL database? So does many EdTech companies have it.
Does your organisation have scalable infrastructure using a tool like “kubernetes”, sure does many other companies across industries.
Think of a gear, a very common and crucial part of mechanical systems. You may put it in a maruti 800 or a bajaj chetak, in the end it is concerned with spinning and eliminating friction.
Similarly, you are building the “Tech” part of the industry. The same principles you use to build, can be used across industries. I’ve worked in a job search company, a company review portal, an event ticketing system, a chat engine, and now in ed-tech and social commerce platform, and in the end I build with the same philosophy and love for the tech.
So now the question remains, where does it actually differentiate? As per my experience, it is the scale the organisation at. Your tech will look very much different when you are handling 10 users from when you are handling 10 thousand or 10 million. Aim and build for scale.
Cheers!