Writing
Notes from the founder seat
Practical writing on building a company, leading as CTO, and hustling without burning the people who make the work possible.
Optimized Laravel Docker Image: PHP 8.5 + Swoole + io_uring
A free public Docker image: PHP 8.5 + Swoole 6.2.2 rebuilt with io_uring. Multi-arch (amd64 + arm64). ARM64/Graviton recommended for best throughput per dollar. Drop-in base with Nginx and Supervisor.
Security Basics Every Early-Stage Startup Should Get Right Before Fundraising
Security basics early-stage startups should fix before fundraising: auth, secrets, encryption, access, dependencies, backups, logging — and SOC 2 sequencing.
Our Engineering Principles: How We Decide What NOT to Build
MarginTop's engineering principles for scope discipline — how we decide what not to build so teams ship trustworthy software.
What I Look for When Hiring Engineers as a First-Time CTO
What Roshan Kc looks for when hiring engineers as a first-time CTO: ownership, communication, and trade-off judgment over résumé keywords.
How AI Coding Tools Changed Our Engineering Velocity (Without Changing Our Standards)
How Cursor and Claude changed MarginTop's engineering velocity while review, tests, domain docs, and secret hygiene kept our standards intact.
The Hidden Cost of Premature Microservices (And Why We're Still a Monolith)
Why MarginTop still ships a modular Laravel monolith — the hidden costs of premature microservices and when splitting actually makes sense.
Build vs. Buy: The Framework We Use to Decide What to Build In-House
MarginTop's build vs buy framework: differentiator vs commodity, Stripe/Cashier and Sanctum examples, and the maintenance tax of building in-house.
How We Use Laravel Octane + Swoole to Handle Concurrent Load Without Rewriting Our App
How MarginTop uses Laravel Octane with Swoole workers, task workers, and Octane::concurrently to handle concurrent load without rewriting the Laravel app.
What TypePHP Means for the Future of PHP Performance
TypePHP is Swoole's open-source AOT compiler (PHP to C++ to native). What it means for PHP performance, early caveats, and why we still ship with Laravel.
Business Logic First: Why We Don't Worry About the Perfect Tech Stack
Why MarginTop prioritizes business logic over the perfect tech stack — AI lowers stack regret, while data and rules remain the real risk.
Why We Chose Laravel Over Node.js for Our Stack
Why MarginTop Solutions chose Laravel over Node.js: hiring pool, team velocity, Forge/Vapor/Cashier/Sanctum, and when we would reconsider.
How to Run Your Startup Tech Stack for Free Until You're Funded
Stack AWS Activate, Azure, and Google Cloud startup credits to keep infrastructure near $0 until you validate or raise.
Ship Fast Without Losing Client Trust: A CTO’s Playbook
A CTO playbook for speed without silent quality debt.
Building a Software Team in Kathmandu From Zero
How MarginTop grew from online freelancers to a Pulchwok crew.
What a First-Time CTO Actually Does (Beyond the Title)
Beyond the title — architecture, trust, and unblocking the room.
Why I Left Teaching to Build a Company in Kathmandu
The real tradeoffs of going full-time on MarginTop in Kathmandu.