> The Geek's Guide to Startup 'Code Smells'

As engineers, we're all too familiar with "code smells" – those subtle indicators that something isn't quite right under the hood, even if it's not a full-blown bug. They're early warnings that can lead to technical debt, slow development, and ultimately, a failing product. What if we applied that same diagnostic lens to the world of startups and company building?

Sarah Guo's brilliant Twitter thread highlights how many of these "code smells" have direct, organizational parallels in the startup world. Recognizing and addressing these "company smells" early can be the difference between scaling successfully and grinding to a halt.

Let's dive into some of these crucial analogies:

1. The "God Object" Founder

Code Smell: A single, monolithic class that knows and controls everything, leading to bottlenecks and making changes difficult.

Company Smell: The founder who must approve every decision.

The Problem: While this can protect "taste" and vision in the early days, it quickly throttles throughput as the company grows. Decisions pile up, and the organization becomes dependent on one person.

The Fix: As Sarah suggests, "export your 'taste' into principles, examples, and defaults so others can act like you." Empower your team with clear guidelines, not just specific instructions.

2. Premature Optimization & Yeti-Level Overengineering

Code Smell: Building highly optimized, scalable solutions for a problem that barely exists (e.g., provisioning six regions for five users).

Company Smell: Heavy processes, hiring senior execs too early, worrying about "platform" strategies before product-market fit.

The Problem: This diverts precious resources and focus from the core goal: finding a killer use case and delighting users. No one cares about your intricate internal structure if your product isn't solving a real problem.

The Fix: Focus relentlessly on the user and their immediate needs. Iterate quickly, get feedback, and build just enough to solve their current pain points.

3. Speculative Generality & Abstractions for a Non-Existent Future

Code Smell: Building complex, abstract architectures for potential future features that never materialize.

Company Smell: Declaring "we're the X layer or consolidator" without a concrete, killer use case.

The Problem: This leads to wasted effort on infrastructure that isn't truly needed. It's building a skyscraper with no tenants in sight. While AI products can sometimes seem to defy this with their broad capabilities, even they need to complete some task at a minimum viable quality to gain traction.

The Fix: Find one concrete "job-to-be-done" where users would be genuinely upset if your solution disappeared. Delight them first, then expand.

4. Fragility & Concentration Risk

Code Smell: A small change in one part of the codebase breaks distant, seemingly unrelated parts.

Company Smell: Concentration risk – over-reliance on a single customer (e.g., 50% of revenue), one distribution channel, or a single platform you don't control.

The Problem: This creates extreme vulnerability. If that one customer leaves, that channel dries up, or the platform changes its rules, your company is in serious jeopardy.

The Fix: Actively diversify your customer base, channels, and platform dependencies. Get out of that "hole" fast.

5. Duplication & The Plurality of Truth

Code Smell: Similar logic copy-pasted across multiple files, leading to inconsistencies and difficult maintenance.

Company Smell: Shadow spreadsheets, parallel tooling, different teams having their own definitions of "active user," or conflicting compensation structures.

The Problem: When there's no single source of truth, scale becomes impossible. Decisions are based on disparate data, and discipline breaks down.

The Fix: Establish clear, centralized definitions, tools, and processes for critical metrics and operations. Foster a culture of "one source of truth."

6. Needless Complexity & Taxing Architectures

Code Smell: Beautiful, over-engineered architectures that make simple tasks slow and cumbersome.

Company Smell: Twelve pricing tiers, bespoke contracts for everyone, three analytics stacks, overly convoluted organizational charts.

The Problem: Complexity is a tax. It slows down execution, increases overhead, and makes it harder for anyone to understand what's going on.

The Fix: Ruthlessly simplify. Only pay the "complexity tax" when it unlocks something specific and valuable. Prioritize clarity and ease of use internally.

7. Dead Code & Zombie Features

Code Smell: Code that exists but is never called, yet everyone is afraid to delete it.

Company Smell: Zombie SKUs, free pilots that never end, reports no one reads, features nobody uses.

The Problem: Dead weight clogs up your system, requires maintenance, and adds to your "surface area," making everything slower. The fastest organizations aren't those that ship the most, but the ones that keep the surface area small.

The Fix: Develop a deletion habit. Regularly review and actively remove products, features, reports, or processes that aren't delivering value. If no one notices it's gone, it was dead code.

8. Shotgun Surgery & Choreographed Changes

Code Smell: A small change requires edits across many distant parts of the codebase.

Company Smell: A tiny pricing experiment requiring choreography between Legal, RevOps, Billing, CS, and Engineering.

The Problem: This dramatically slows down experimentation and iteration. Simple ideas become multi-week projects.

The Fix: Refactor interfaces. Implement standard terms, feature flags, and clear ownership to ensure tiny changes stay tiny and localized.

9. Tight Coupling & Gatekeeper Dependencies

Code Smell: Your product is overly dependent on a single external API or library, making it vulnerable to external changes.

Company Smell: Your core business depends on a single gatekeeper API or distribution policy from a platform you don't control.

The Problem: This is fine until it isn't. When the gatekeeper changes terms or restricts access, your business can be devastated.

The Fix: "Multi-home early." Build direct channels or next-best-options, even if they are slower or more expensive initially. Options are an asset and reduce risk.

Simple Tests for Your Startup's Health

Sarah offers some great, actionable tests:

• Pricing Experiment: Ask for a two-day pricing experiment. How many teams does it touch?
• Deletion Test: Delete one report or SKU. See who notices.
• Metric Alignment: Check if teams agree on the SQL for a core metric.
• Time to Live: Time "idea → live" for a small feature. If it's weeks, you're probably smelling something.

The Continuous Refactor

Just as good engineers continuously refactor their code, good founders continuously refactor their organizations. They scale taste through principles, compress complexity, and reduce single points of failure. "Smells" aren't fatal, but they are the earliest, cheapest place to intervene.

Every organization gets slow someday, but especially in the age of AI, the ability to adapt and move quickly is paramount. By understanding and addressing these "company smells," you can delay that slowdown and build a more robust, scalable, and agile startup.

Inspired by Sarah Guo's insightful thread on organizational code smells. Geeks understand architecture is a series of tradeoffs, whether it's software or an organization. Continuous refactoring isn't just for code; it's for culture too.