StartupENGINEERING
Startup Engineering by Selva Ganapathy — book cover
The book · Forthcoming

Startup
Engineering

A technical decision framework for the 0→1 journey in the AI era.

Most technical advice silently assumes a validated business. Between 0 and 1, nothing is validated yet — so technology's job is not to be good. It is to serve the loop you're in: buy the next piece of evidence as cheaply as possible, protect the runway, and stay reversible until the hypothesis holds. This book is the map of that journey, for founders and CTOs.

By Selva Ganapathy

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What the book contains

Framework → Judgment → Execution

Startup Engineering is the discipline. The Five Loops are its map. The decisions are its practice. The skills are executable versions of those decisions.

The Five Loops

The map of 0→1: five evidence loops, each with a north star, an engineering bar, and an exit bar concrete enough to write on an index card.

Explore the loops

17 decisions

Each titled as the question founders actually ask, and worked in six parts: decision, determining questions, paths with dated costs, what I'd do, limits, skill.

Browse decisions

Decision skills

Every decision's executable version — a plain text file you hand to an AI assistant. Free, with an escalation clause that names its own edges.

Get the skills

Back-matter one-pagers

The Loop Check, the five exit bars, the master list of determining questions, the build contract checklist, and the cost index.

Start with the Loop Check
Inside

The decisions, by loop

The Problem Loop
Idea → Manual Delivery
  • Does this need to be built at all?
  • What's the riskiest thing I'm assuming?
  • Will AI make this obsolete before I build it?
The Solution Loop
Prototype → Disposable Prototype
  • How real should my prototype be — and who should build it?
  • My AI-built prototype works — now what?
The Product Loop
MVP → Launchable MVP
  • Who should build my MVP — and under what agreement?
  • What goes in — and what gets cut?
  • Which technology? (The question behind the question)
  • What can't wait?
  • How do I know the build is going well?
  • What does “ready to launch” actually mean?
The Market Loop
Traction → Observable Product
  • Ready to launch — to whom?
  • What should I measure after launch?
  • What happens when it breaks at 2 a.m.?
  • What does one customer cost to serve?
The Fit Loop
Retention → Repeatable System
  • Is this traction — or founder heroics?
  • When should technical ownership move in-house — and what should I own first?

The book has a designated revision surface — the “This Loop in the AI Era” sections and the dated cost tables. When the next technology wave arrives, they will be rewritten, and the framework beneath them will not move. This site is where those pages stay current.

Created by

Selva Ganapathy

I wrote Startup Engineering because most technical advice silently assumes a validated business. Between 0 and 1, nothing is validated yet — and I've made these mistakes personally.

About·LinkedIn

  • 20 years of product engineering, across Silicon Valley and India
  • Founded a SaaS company and took it from 0 to ₹6 Cr (~$700K) ARR
  • Runs production AI at 50M tokens/min
  • LinkedIn Top AI Voice (Aug–Dec 2024)
  • Author of Startup Engineering (forthcoming)

Some decisions need a human with scars in the room. That's what I do → selvaganapathy.io