4 lessons from scaling a startup: Matthew O’Riordan on the Code Story podcast

Code Story is a podcast featuring tech leaders discussing their journeys, products, successes, and mistakes. CEO Matthew O'Riordan recently appeared on the show to share Ably's story and lessons learned along the way. Ably is a realtime experience platform that provides APIs and SDKs for developers to build realtime applications quickly. Founder Matt O'Riordan explained how his interest in interactive and collaborative technologies led him to create Ably, which focuses on providing low latency, data integrity, availability, and dependability for realtime applications. He also shared four lessons learned while scaling the startup: 1) The importance of building a unique product despite taking longer than expected; 2) Balancing customer insight with vision-driven development; 3) Focusing on helping developers succeed rather than forcing sales-led motions; and 4) Scaling a team by hiring around values, skills, and an entrepreneurial mindset. Matt's advice for budding founders includes doing something you're genuinely interested in, finding the right co-founders, and choosing investors wisely.