Scaling Fast

What happens when your startup hits the hockey stick? Customers are flooding in, deadlines are relentless, and your engineering team is drowning in technical debt. Scaling isn't optional-it's survival. In Scaling Fast: Software Engineering Through the Hockeystick, veteran startup engineer Swizec Teller shares hard-won lessons from leading teams through hypergrowth. From women's health startups scaling to nine-figure Series B rounds to biotech platforms going from zero to eight-figure revenue in just three years, this is a practical guide to thriving when demand explodes. You'll learn how to: Scale the business without losing product-market fit Grow teams with trust, delegation, and high-output culture Balance speed, quality, and technical debt Use feature flags, small-a agile, and continuous delivery to keep shipping Know when to let small fires burn-and when to fix them fast Architect your code to increase velocity and reduce bugs Drawing on real startup war stories, this book shows what works (and what doesn't) when your company is growing faster than your systems can handle. If you liked Accelerate, The Phoenix Project, Team Topologies, or The Lean Startup, Scaling Fast is your engineer's playbook for surviving-and thriving-in hypergrowth. Whether you're an engineer on your first rocket ship, a tech lead managing rapid growth, or a founder scaling without breaking everything, this book will help you navigate chaos, build resilient systems, and keep moving forward.