[toomuchtodo]

> So what should you focus on?

Revenue via leverage (managed services) once you have traction (people will pay you for what you're offering). Outsource everything except your core competencies, and optimize as throughput allows for either growth or cost reductions (judgement calls by competent practitioners close to the machinery). Broad strokes, as a startup you're attempting to grow revenue as fast as you can through value delivery to customers; you should be ruthlessly cutting anything you're spending your time on that doesn't contribute to that goal.

For sure, keep an eye towards your regulatory requirements, lock in risk (both vendor and technology), etc. That's not a call to self host everything, just what you absolutely can't grow or survive without (and in many cases, a product or service may come along down the road that allows you to refactor out of homegrown solutions). Organizational contributors who understand technology making these decisions de-risks suboptimal decisions being made.

(observations from experience at a hyper growth startup)