Many early-stage startups focus almost exclusively on shipping fast, often ignoring performance, reliability, and system architecture until it becomes a painful and expensive problem.
This lecture addresses why performance is not a “later-stage concern,” but a strategic decision that directly impacts user trust, growth, infrastructure cost, and the company’s ability to scale. Drawing from real-world experience working on some of the largest B2C applications in the world, the session explains how early architectural choices, often made casually, can either enable rapid growth or create long-term technical debt that slows teams down and drains resources.
The lecture breaks down performance thinking in a way that is accessible to founders and early engineers, even without deep systems knowledge. It covers how to design systems that are simple, scalable, and cost-aware from day one; how reliability and performance affect user behavior and retention; and why fixing these issues later is exponentially more expensive.
Special attention is given to early-stage startups in the MENA region, where teams often operate with limited budgets, small engineering groups, and high pressure to move fast. The lecture helps founders understand where performance truly matters early, where it doesn’t, and how to make smart trade-offs that protect the future of the company.
Hazem
Hazem Murad is a computer science graduate of the high-tech institution of the Technion in Haifa, and a Senior Software Engineer at Meta, where he has spent over six years working on performance and reliability for some of the largest B2C applications in the world, including Facebook apps used by billions of people. Beyond big tech, Hazem is deeply involved in entrepreneurship and early-stage ecosystems. He has advised multiple startups over the past two years on technical architecture, scalability, and product decision-making, and is currently building his own B2C AI-powered startup alongside his role at Meta. Hazem is also a community builder and ecosystem contributor. He co-founded Harmony, a community for Arab professionals in multiple jurisdictions with continued regional growth, focused on connecting experts across industries and fostering collaboration to build businesses. He is an active member of the Arab Tech Collective (ATC) in New York, which connects Arab professionals across major corporations and leading universities to expand networks and opportunities. In addition, Hazem is part of the Viaka Angel Investor Club, where he invests in and advises early-stage startups from the MENA region. This combination of large-scale engineering experience, startup advising, community leadership, and early-stage investing gives Hazem a unique perspective on what it truly takes to build technology companies that last.
