The Startup Checklist

15Choosing Your Key Technologies, Platforms, and Vendors

This is a chapter that would not have been included in any business book as recently as a decade ago but one that is indispensable today. The exponential growth of technology since the introduction of the Internet has fundamentally redefined the way in which businesses operate, and the primary beneficiary is . . . you.

In years past, it would have taken a huge amount of time and money and significant number of people to set up the basic infrastructure systems that a high-growth company needs to operate. Today, you can sit at your keyboard and, in a few hours at virtually no cost, set up a complete office full of tools and services that are as effective as those of a Fortune 100 company. Because these are all services delivered through the Internet, you can start in your bedroom and seamlessly transition to a coworking space, a dedicated office, and a mega-million-dollar business campus as your company grows, without missing a beat. Even better, the services work across geographies and time zones, allowing you to build a completely virtual and distributed company. The result is to make working with a colleague a thousand miles away as easy as working with someone at the next desk.

Because technology is continually advancing, and because an essential feature of Software as a Service (SaaS) is that it can be continuously updated without you needing to do anything, it is likely that by the time you read this book there will ...