A simple mental model

Software can feel like a mysterious thing. Code, servers, databases, APIs, deployments — the jargon piles up fast. For non-technical founders, the whole world can feel impenetrable, which makes it harder to make good decisions about what to build, how to build it, and who to trust to help.

It doesn’t have to be that way. The basic shape of how software actually gets built is much simpler than the vocabulary suggests. Once you have a clear mental model of the parts, the decisions stop feeling so opaque.

This topic walks through the basics — without trying to make you an engineer. The goal is for you to understand the shape of what’s happening underneath, so you can have useful conversations about it.

Three big pieces

Most software products are made up of three big piec...

How software actually gets built (without the jargon)