What I Learned Building a Startup App: Tech Stack Choices & Team Lessons

Hello, I'm your friend Architect Jun, a developer who also writes poetry.

Background

In June 2022 I joined a very small startup whose founder lacked technical and management experience, leading to rapid but unsustainable development and eventual dissolution.

The founder demanded low labor cost and a fast delivery of Android and iOS apps.

Initial Technology Selection

We had only a fresh front‑end developer and a UI designer, no dedicated QA.

Based on our needs and my experience with front‑end and Node.js, we chose:

Use uni-app to develop the app, enabling multi‑platform support and future mini‑program extensions.

Use egg.js + MySQL for the backend, which is quick to develop and sufficient for our scale, with a later migration path to midway.js.

Use antd-vue for the admin panel to keep the front‑end stack unified with uni-app.

Thus the initial stack was egg.js + MySQL + uni-app + antd-vue to quickly go from 0 to 1.

Choosing an App Development Approach

We considered native iOS/Android, Flutter, and React‑Native/Taro‑like solutions. Native development was too costly, Flutter required new learning, and we finally selected uni-app for its familiarity and efficiency.

Why We Chose egg.js for the Backend

Although more mature solutions like Java, PHP, or Go exist, they were not economical for the founder. egg.js was simple, fast, and familiar to the team, with low learning curve for new members.

Mid‑Project Turbulence

Development proceeded smoothly at first, but the founder’s operational difficulties led to constant changes, redesigns, and even suggestions to rewrite the whole product with unrelated experts.

Additional demands appeared: system upgrades, UI redesigns, mini‑program development, new backend services, instant messaging, and numerous small features.

Later Technical Adjustments

Adjusted the app packaging scheme.

Introduced midway.js for new business modules, building on the existing egg.js expertise.

Managed shared npm packages and built a component library.

Standardized code style and development processes.

Recruitment and Team Management

Recruitment

Hiring for a small startup is difficult, especially with limited salary.

Our unified JavaScript stack allowed developers to work on both front‑end and back‑end, reducing resource waste.

Team Management

Adopt a business‑oriented, realistic approach.

Prefer full‑stack development to avoid coordination issues.

Define coding standards based on existing habits.

Follow a clear development workflow: product evaluation → task assignment → technical assessment → development → testing → code review → deployment → issue tracking.

Measure performance by delivery dates, documentation, bug count, and careful database changes.

Encourage knowledge sharing, timely feedback, and open communication.

Final Takeaways and Pitfalls to Avoid

Ensure the founder is reliable and decisive.

A trustworthy founder can still create value even if a project fails.

Focus on generating revenue; without cash flow a startup cannot survive.

Prioritize core business problems; technology choices can be refined later.

Maintain transparent communication with the founder.

Extract lessons from every experience.

Source: Internet