Two and a Half Years at a Startup

• 2022/07/10

Two and a Half Years at a Startup

I used to post on Qiita, but somehow stopped for about two years. During that time I joined a startup, and now that 2.5 years have passed I want to resume sharing—starting with how the move felt.

From trigger to transition

My previous job in Hokkaido involved running an apparel e-commerce site, mainly handling AWS infrastructure: provisioning servers, writing shell scripts, migrating on-prem systems to AWS. I only stayed for about a year, but it was a great experience.

Still, I wanted to write code and build web services. I soon realized my infra background could be a strength if I found a role that combined both. Smaller companies seemed promising, though I was not specifically targeting startups yet. As I kept interviewing, I learned about startups and doubted they would hire someone early in their career (I was in my second year). But you do not know unless you try. I applied, interviews progressed smoothly, and I received an offer—at 22.

A new chapter

I relocated from Hokkaido back to Tokyo, where I had worked previously. The pace shocked me—in a good way. Releases and decisions happen fast; we still think things through, but the expectation is to move quickly, hypothesize, and iterate. Sometimes we rebuild features within a month. I thrive on that pace (time really has flown by).

Four months after I joined, COVID pushed us into remote work. It was my first time working remotely. Slack became the primary communication channel, which demands clear writing to avoid misunderstandings and overly long messages. I also try to output something every day:

• For implementation tasks, open pull requests early so code is visible.
• For research, log findings in issues or share work-in-progress spreadsheets before signing off.
• For infra or cost-related work, post quick updates in Slack.

These habits make scheduling easier and surface misalignments sooner—especially valuable when everyone is remote.