Technical debt is a metaphor developed by Ward Cunningham (Developer of the first Wiki and pioneer in patterns and XP) to frame the problem of the inevitable trade-offs made between rushing to capture market vs. the longer term viability of code and infrastructure. As a start-up, these trade-off decisions will never be more constant and far reaching. While technical debt may be unavoidable, understanding and managing technical debt from the beginning is crucial to a start-up's ability to grow and scale. Members from the eBags IT Team will share their perspective and experience with technical debt as a successful Denver startup 16+ years in.