When Alok and I started building Reveal, a platform that helps researchers go from 0 to 1 in qualitative research without losing nuance, we made a conscious decision: we'd work like we were coding from a cabin in the middle of nowhere, even though we're building for everywhere.
This isn't about romantic notions of remote work. It's about intentional isolation from the noise that drowns out good product decisions.
The Cabin Philosophy
In a physical cabin, you bring only what's essential. We've applied this same principle to our product development process.
Our "digital cabin" means stripping away everything that doesn't directly contribute to solving real problems for real people. No vanity metrics. No feature bloat. No building things because competitors have them.
When everyone was rushing to add chatbots, we focused on what our users actually needed: going from zero to meaningful research insights quickly. This clarity later made it obvious to build agentic systems that work holistically across entire research studies, not just isolated chat interactions.
Fast-Paced, Yet Thoughtful
The startup world treats "fast" and "thoughtful" as mutually exclusive. But constraint actually enables both speed and intentionality.
When you're clear about what matters, decisions become faster. When you're not distracted by noise, you focus on problems that actually need solving. When your workspace (physical or mental) is optimized for deep work, you ship better software in less time.
What We're Learning
Seventeen years of building web applications taught me: your infrastructure decisions in the early days will either enable or constrain everything you do later.
This means choosing boring, reliable approaches over shiny new ones. Building systems that handle complexity without breaking—even when thousands of async tasks run simultaneously in a single research study. Setting up proactive monitoring and automation from day one.
The goal isn't to over-engineer: it's to under-worry. When your foundation is solid, you focus on product decisions instead of firefighting.
Collaboration
The best product decisions emerge from the intersection of technical possibility and market reality. Neither pure engineering nor pure business thinking gets you there alone.
Our cabin metaphor works because it creates space for deep collaboration. No external pressures. No premature optimization for scale we don't have yet. Just two people solving problems with the full weight of combined experience.
Where We Stand
The cabin approach is proving its worth. We're shipping features users actually want. Our infrastructure scales smoothly. Our codebase remains maintainable even as we move quickly.
More importantly, we're building a product that solves real problems rather than chasing metrics that don't matter. Sometimes the best way to build for everyone is to start by building from nowhere.
The cabin isn't about isolation: it's about intention. It's about creating conditions where good software can emerge naturally, without the distractions that typically derail early-stage product development.
If you're building something new, consider finding your own version of the cabin. It might be the difference between shipping features and shipping value.