

Startups: scalability from the start? - kirbdee

In implementing an idea/product would it be better to push quickly then iterate, or design and implement for scalability from the start?<p>Recommendations for scaling would help too.<p>Posted this on Quora as well: 
http://b.qr.ae/jWRWB7
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Detrus
I think a middle ground is probably best. Choose a tech stack that can scale
but doesn't slow down programming productivity much. Something like node,
python twisted/tornado or Go-lang. Same idea for databases.

Using the right stack will usually get you up to a few thousand users without
major headaches, after that you'll have to know what you're doing.

There are startups that fail to scale to a few thousand users, who are easy
enough to find for a free service. It's not a nice problem to have when you're
not making money solving it. A little scalability planning ahead helps, gives
you more time to work on the product.

The general advice on HN is to ignore scalability at first. It's vague advice
to a vague question.

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trbecker
If you can, you should always push quickly and iterate, looking for
scalability later. That is fine for products/parts of products you can easily
update or replace at low cost (e.g. software), but not for those you can't
replace that easily and cheaply (e.g. hardware.)

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kirbdee
So would something like creating the product on a simple lamp stack on an AWS
instance be a good start?

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starter
Probably yes. Can it handle the first 1000 users? Then, just create and ship
your product before worrying about scalability.

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trbecker
Indeed. It's better to discover if your product fits the market before trying
to do the extra 80% of the hard work. If it fits, you have data to confirm,
and you can go to a money raising round with solid information. If it doesn't
fit, you can get out of something that doesn't matter quickly.

