Paolo Negri, co-founder and CTO of Contentful, has witnessed the company's growth from a handful of people to its current global team of over 450 employees serving thousands of customers, including 28% of Fortune 500 companies. He attributes some of Contentful's success to his keen eye on tech trends, such as GraphQL. Negri now focuses on building platforms that enable connected digital experiences, where customers expect an integrated interface with businesses or enterprises. Silos are a problem as they make assembling information and presenting it to customers impossible. Negri emphasizes the importance of extensibility in core platforms, customization, and scalability. He recommends focusing on specific business needs, building custom solutions, and ensuring foundational tools are extensible. Paolo also stresses the need for a safe environment, clear interfaces, and a community of professionals supporting the technology. With digital channels taking over more customer journeys, highly available infrastructure is crucial to serve customers in unforeseen events. The rate of change is accelerating, and designing a stack that can adapt to this requires cultivating trust between customers and businesses, built on transparency and information sharing.