Startup Mistakes: Choice of Datastore

#1

Post by stavros » Thu, Nov 16, 2017, 1:57 PM UTC

Startup Mistakes: Choice of Datastore
stavros.io

Re: Startup Mistakes: Choice of Datastore

#2

Post by onion2k » Thu, Nov 16, 2017, 2:16 PM UTC

Just pick something and build an MVP with it. Then get on with the hard part of finding paying customers. You can fix the bad tech decisions later. Without customers it won't matter which database you used before your startup failed.

Re: Startup Mistakes: Choice of Datastore

#3

Post by StavrosK » Thu, Nov 16, 2017, 2:19 PM UTC

onion2k wrote: post #2

Just pick something and build an MVP with it. Then get on with the hard part of finding paying customers. You can fix the bad tech decisions later. Without customers it won't matter which database you used before your startup failed.

I agree, but it's better if later you only have to fix ten bad decisions instead of twenty.

Re: Startup Mistakes: Choice of Datastore

#4

Post by elvinyung » Thu, Nov 16, 2017, 2:21 PM UTC

I feel like MongoDB/NoSQL is a horse that's been beaten so much in the last few years that no one is actually making that choice nowadays. Hasn't everyone already learned to stick with Postgres?

Re: Startup Mistakes: Choice of Datastore

#5

Post by redwood » Thu, Nov 16, 2017, 2:22 PM UTC

So he used a database 7 years ago that was about one year old at the time and had a bad experience with it and now continues to judge it to this day without tracking the evolution since, including schemas in the current release candidate.

Re: Startup Mistakes: Choice of Datastore

#6

Post by williamstein » Thu, Nov 16, 2017, 2:22 PM UTC

TL;DR: "just use Postgres"

Re: Startup Mistakes: Choice of Datastore

#7

Post by StavrosK » Thu, Nov 16, 2017, 2:22 PM UTC

elvinyung wrote: post #4

I feel like MongoDB/NoSQL is a horse that's been beaten so much in the last few years that no one is actually making that choice nowadays. Hasn't everyone already learned to stick with Postgres?

Unfortunately, no. Some friends of mine picked another nonrel database (not Mongo) for their new company, which prompted this article. I still have to give this advice quite often.

Re: Startup Mistakes: Choice of Datastore

#8

Post by StavrosK » Thu, Nov 16, 2017, 2:24 PM UTC

redwood wrote: post #5

So he used a database 7 years ago that was about one year old at the time and had a bad experience with it and now continues to judge it to this day without tracking the evolution since, including schemas in the current release candidate.

No, the article isn't about Mongo. Quite the opposite.

Re: Startup Mistakes: Choice of Datastore

#9

Post by izolate » Thu, Nov 16, 2017, 2:27 PM UTC

onion2k wrote: post #2

Just pick something and build an MVP with it. Then get on with the hard part of finding paying customers. You can fix the bad tech decisions later. Without customers it won't matter which database you used before your startup failed.

Exactly. This article typifies premature optimisation. If MongoDB lets you prototype faster, then use it until you have enough paying customers to warrant a refactor.

Re: Startup Mistakes: Choice of Datastore

#10

Post by StavrosK » Thu, Nov 16, 2017, 2:33 PM UTC

izolate wrote: post #9

onion2k wrote: post #2

Just pick something and build an MVP with it. Then get on with the hard part of finding paying customers. You can fix the bad tech decisions later. Without customers it won't matter which database you used before your startup failed.

Exactly. This article typifies premature optimisation. If MongoDB lets you prototype faster, then use it until you have enough paying customers to warrant a refactor.

I think you're greatly underestimating both the effort of changing a datastore from under a live application and the free time developers in a startup have.