On the 50th episode of Speedify Live we take a look into the world of Startups with Fractional CTO, Nico Westerdale, who we has worked with Speedify before as well.

Nico joins us to discuss how he uses technology to help startups, what kind of companies he’s been working with, and provide any viewers with startups with some valuable advice.

Here are out 5 takeaways from our chat with Nico Westerdale:

1. The Fractional model allows Nico to work with different startups and split his time between them and provide each one with a lot of value in terms of helping realize ideas, and run their technology. He also sees a lot of opportunities and value in the model, as it could help avoid burnout in many fields.
2. Nico tells us that in order to pick an MVP (minimum viable product) you need to have a lot of hard conversations with your team. You need to decide what the smallest thing you can release is, that is usable, and then refine it, and try to find the product market fit: refining it until you get it to the place you want it to be. 
3. When it comes to no-code solutions for building MVPs, Nico says things like Bubble.io are a quick way to validate your ideas without code. Getting a website out there so you could show it to investors can help raise capital. It also helps in working out the kinks in user interaction by just going through the exercise of building it. 
4. One of the startups Nico’s been working with is IndieVets: it hires veterinarians, who can choose which hospital they want to work with, allowing them to cut their work hours down to 40 hours a week, and get full benefits, instead of working over 70 hours in small practices, where burnout rates are very high.
5. Nico’s advice to startup engineers: get out of the mindset that you’re not being productive if you’re not writing code! Don’t be afraid to spend time on talking out ideas, writing them down, because in the end, you’re more productive that way and can create a better product.