The Deep Dives

Startup SRE: Building Reliability from Day One


Listen Later

In the chaotic world of startups, the pressure to ship features often pushes reliability to the back burner, a debt to be paid "later." But what if this approach is fundamentally flawed? In this episode, we argue that reliability isn't a brake on development, but the very engine of sustainable growth.

Join us for a deep-dive into the pragmatic principles of Site Reliability Engineering, tailored for the resource-constrained reality of a startup. We'll move beyond theory and provide an actionable blueprint for engineering managers, SREs, and founders.

You will learn:

  • The Cultural Foundation: How to implement data-driven tools like Error Budgets and user-centric SLOs to balance speed with stability.
  • Pragmatic Tech Stacks: Why a "monolith first" approach and a cost-effective, open-source observability stack built on Prometheus, Grafana, and OpenTelemetry are strategic assets that prevent vendor lock-in.
  • A Phased 6-Month Plan: How to evolve your reliability practices in lockstep with your business—from validating an MVP to surviving hypergrowth.
  • Learning from Failure: The anatomy of a blameless postmortem and how to create a culture of psychological safety that turns every incident into an investment in resilience.

Stop treating reliability as a luxury and start building your most durable competitive advantage.

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

The Deep DivesBy Rajat Gupta