Stage-Based Recommendations
🌱
Pre-Seed / Bootstrapped (0-5 people)
✅ DO:
- • Simple environment variables (.env files)
- • Kill switch flags for major features
- • Free tier of RemoteEnv for remote toggles
❌ SKIP:
- • Complex targeting rules
- • A/B testing infrastructure
- • Paid enterprise platforms
🚀
Seed Stage (5-15 people)
✅ DO:
- • Adopt lightweight platform (RemoteEnv)
- • Wrap risky deploys in flags
- • Enable gradual rollouts (% based)
❌ SKIP:
- • User-level targeting
- • Advanced analytics
- • Multi-region infrastructure
📈
Series A+ (15-50 people)
✅ DO:
- • Team-wide flag discipline
- • Staging → prod promotion workflows
- • Basic user targeting if needed
⚠️ CONSIDER:
- • Enterprise platforms (if scale demands it)
- • But evaluate if RemoteEnv still fits first
What NOT to Implement Yet
Premature Optimizations
- ❌Complex Segmentation
Wait until you have >10K active users
- ❌Custom Flag SDKs
Use APIs until proven bottleneck
- ❌Audit Logging
Basic version control is enough
Build These First
- ✅Kill Switches
Turn off broken features instantly
- ✅Percentage Rollouts
Test with 1% of traffic first
- ✅Environment-Based Flags
Different configs for dev/staging/prod
Overengineering Warning
⚠️
The Feature Flag Trap
Startups often adopt enterprise tooling too early, thinking "we'll grow into it." This backfires in three ways:
1. Cognitive Overhead
Complex platforms require training. Your 5-person team wastes days learning features you won't use for years.
2. Financial Waste
Paying $200/month for LaunchDarkly when you could use RemoteEnv for $0-29/month is burning runway.
3. Velocity Tax
Every abstraction layer slows iteration. At early stage, speed > sophistication.
Cost of Premature Tooling
| Cost Category | Enterprise Platform | RemoteEnv |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly Cost (5-person team) | $50-100 | $0-29 |
| Setup Time | 4-8 hours | <30 min |
| Training Required | 2-3 hours/person | 10 min |
| Total First-Year Cost | $600-1200 + 20hr eng time | $0-348 + 2hr |