Building a Startup on Clojure
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Building a Startup on Clojure
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Re: Building a Startup on Clojure
#2If I was choosing a language to base the tech stack for a startup on these days I'd be very reluctant to pick anything that didn't have a local user group. Slightly more esoteric languages that enable you to write better code faster are brilliant, but if you're successful enough to grow quickly, or you can raise funding, you'll need to hire devs relatively early on. If you've chosen a stack that's too esoteric then this will be a huge blocker to making any real progress.
When I did my last startup we switched from a Python API to Node for this reason. Python is a great language but there are no devs available where I live. I can't even imagine considering Clojure unless I was in a major tech hub.
The move to remote work is probably going to be a massive benefit to building in less mainstream languages.
Re: Building a Startup on Clojure
#3If I was choosing a language to base the tech stack for a startup on these days I'd be very reluctant to pick anything that didn't have a local user group. Slightly more esoteric languages that enable you to write better code faster are brilliant, but if you're successful enough to grow quickly, or you can raise funding, you'll need to hire devs relatively early on. If you've chosen a stack that's too esoteric then t…
Counterpoint: building in esoteric languages can serve as a filtering mechanism in and of itself. Given how broad the swaths of JavaScript and Java developers are, they can be much more hit-or-miss.
Re: Building a Startup on Clojure
#4If I was choosing a language to base the tech stack for a startup on these days I'd be very reluctant to pick anything that didn't have a local user group. Slightly more esoteric languages that enable you to write better code faster are brilliant, but if you're successful enough to grow quickly, or you can raise funding, you'll need to hire devs relatively early on. If you've chosen a stack that's too esoteric then t…
Counterpoint: building in esoteric languages can serve as a filtering mechanism in and of itself. Given how broad the swaths of JavaScript and Java developers are, they can be much more hit-or-miss.
Countercounterpoint: People can be terrible at Clojure. The distribution of ability probably doesn't vary much between languages.
Re: Building a Startup on Clojure
#5Question for Clojure's pros: as a designer I started programming javascript for a long time, now I can do my own APIs on Node easily, would it be hard to do APIs in Clojure? Can you recommend me a video course for learn it?
Re: Building a Startup on Clojure
#6If I was choosing a language to base the tech stack for a startup on these days I'd be very reluctant to pick anything that didn't have a local user group. Slightly more esoteric languages that enable you to write better code faster are brilliant, but if you're successful enough to grow quickly, or you can raise funding, you'll need to hire devs relatively early on. If you've chosen a stack that's too esoteric then t…
I haven't gotten to that stage yet. But I think it's difficult to hire good devs for all stacks, be it Python, Ruby, JS. Clojure community is super friendly and full of very talented developers and I'd love to pay someone to write Clojure :).
Yes, remote work for sure is an edge when hiring!
Also reminds me of the essay "The Python Paradox" by Paul Graham (http://www.paulgraham.com/pypar.html)
Re: Building a Startup on Clojure
#7Question for Clojure's pros: as a designer I started programming javascript for a long time, now I can do my own APIs on Node easily, would it be hard to do APIs in Clojure? Can you recommend me a video course for learn it?
Clojure is great for writing backends. Checkout Ring and Compojure. Simple libraries for making an API :).
Re: Building a Startup on Clojure
#8I worked at a startup that was built on Clojure. It had trouble finding developers for reasonable salaries at the early mid stage. They decided to switch the stack to python at that point. Just an anecdote!
Re: Building a Startup on Clojure
#9If I was choosing a language to base the tech stack for a startup on these days I'd be very reluctant to pick anything that didn't have a local user group. Slightly more esoteric languages that enable you to write better code faster are brilliant, but if you're successful enough to grow quickly, or you can raise funding, you'll need to hire devs relatively early on. If you've chosen a stack that's too esoteric then t…
Counterpoint: building in esoteric languages can serve as a filtering mechanism in and of itself. Given how broad the swaths of JavaScript and Java developers are, they can be much more hit-or-miss.
Counterpoint counterpoint: Esoteric languages attract PL nerds, who are much more interested in using every new/different "expressive" feature of the language than in getting business done using clear code understandable by anyone on almost any level.
Re: Building a Startup on Clojure
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
Counterpoint: building in esoteric languages can serve as a filtering mechanism in and of itself. Given how broad the swaths of JavaScript and Java developers are, they can be much more hit-or-miss.
Countercounterpoint: People can be terrible at Clojure. The distribution of ability probably doesn't vary much between languages.
It absolutely does, because there’s a self-selection in being interested in an esoteric langage (assuming it’s not a corporate oddball or legacy langage) which raises the average above the background of targeting “employable” langages: people going through this process show more interest in the field.
Though that doesn’t mean they’ll be more productive, and then adds hiring challenges. So the break-even is not simple.
One of pg’s early essays was on exactly that subject (“the python paradox).