When embarking on a cloud-native journey, engineering organizations often overlook establishing a solid foundation to ensure success. Building an internal developer platform can be challenging, requiring careful consideration of principles such as standardization, abstraction, and treating the platform as a product. The author highlights five key principles to consider: embracing standardization, avoiding the fallacy of making everyone an expert, building a platform as a product, starting small with a minimal viable solution, and being aware of the tragedy of the commons where individual interests may conflict with group needs. By following these principles, organizations can create a successful internal developer platform that supports their growth and adoption of cloud-native technologies.