

MongoHQ (YC S11) Raises $6 Million For Database As Service Engine - mrkurt
http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/18/mongohq-raises-6-million-for-database-as-service-engine/

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landonhowell
MongoHQ is proof that a successful startup can be created anywhere and grow
anywhere. Proud of these guys and they probably have the most unique office
space/location of any startup in Alabama.

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nostromo
We're currently on DynamoDB, and it has given us some real headaches, so I
wish these guys luck! Amazon iterates quickly (well, quickly for a megacorp)
so we're still hopeful about seeing improvements.

Here's a good explanation from a MongoHQ founder about why you should choose
them over DynamoDB: [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11741977/choosing-a-
datab...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11741977/choosing-a-database-
service-mongohq-vs-dynamodb)

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hirose31
You should write a post about your experience with DynamoDB. We considered
using it, so i'd love to hear more about your experience

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nostromo
Yeah, I've considered that before. Thanks for the suggestion. If you want me
to ping you when I get around to writing it, drop me an email (address is in
my profile).

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harrisreynolds
Congrats to the MongoHQ team!! I remember when they first launched their
service a couple of years ago I was like... wow why are they doing that? Now
I'm like, wow... why DIDN'T I do that?? :-) All the best dudes!

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benjaminwootton
No disrespect whatsoever to MongoHQ, but I'm skeptical that there will ever be
a big market for database as a service.

These are all niche, and likely to remain so: \- Companies willing to use
public cloud; \- Companies willing to adopt NoSQL; \- Companies willing to
move production data outside of their control; \- Companies who would rather
not manage their production database.

Operating in any one of those niches is challenging, let alone at the
intersection of all of them.

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jhchen
Public clouds are not a niche service and to say companies will never adopt
nosql even as they improve every day is a very strong statement. Companies
don't want to manage their databases; they just want uptime, performance and
control (which in the past implies direct management), but this is exactly
what MongoHQ is offering and why they will succeed.

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benjaminwootton
Theyre all getting traction in certain niches, but 99 out of 100 companies are
going to be very skeptical about using something like this and ill wager it
will take years for that to change.

Looking at EC2 or a NoSQL solution in isolation maybe, but I know that if i
suggested NoSQL database as a service to most of my customers for their
production data I would be laughed out of the building.

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jbredeche
I've used MongoHQ in two companies now, and couldn't be happier with their
product, uptime, and ridiculously responsive support (especially during late-
night, crap-I-just-dropped-our-staging-database-by-accident-because-I-ran-
unit-tests-on-the-wrong-environment routines). Very happy for their success so
far, and looking forward to what they have in the pipeline.

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kennystone
Between Mongo and Heroku, we've been able to stay small and super focused on
functionality, which is by far the best use of our time. Paying these guys a
few hundred$ a month is just way cheaper than my engineering team spending
mind share on being good database admins.

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prezjordan
I apologize if this is inappropriate - but how much equity would someone like
Trinity Ventures get for a deal like this?

\- Someone who's interested in startups but has a lot to learn

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greattypo
Title should be YC S11.

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mrkurt
Doh! How embarrassing.

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niggler
It would seem as if YC is now focusing on selling shovels in the gold rush ...

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tptacek
What does this comment even mean? MongoHQ was one of something like 60
companies in its batch. YC doesn't control Trinity; Trinity is one of the
older VC's in the valley.

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tlogan
Great! (And I love that the company is not from SV)

I really would like to hear some comments on how "database as a service" will
look in 5 years from now. What is the vision of MongoHQ team?

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dkhenry
Is there really that much money in databases as a service ? Setting up mongo
for me is a one step process

    
    
        yum install mongod-server && service start mongod

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harrylove
Many years ago, people asked the same questions about food, clothing, shelter,
farming, weapons, mining, steel, oil, gas, electricity, sewer systems,
telephone networks, radio, television, and the internet.

Everything is a service waiting to happen.

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dkhenry
Procreation ?

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bmelton
Between prostitution, surrogates for pay and adoption agencies, I'd say that
most aspects of procreation are already "as a service" in practice.

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jcampbell1
Does 10Gen just allow people to trample the trademark on Mongo? Imagine if the
company was called OracleHQ.

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jasonmccay
MongoHQ has a licensing agreement with 10gen for the name. Plus, as already
mentioned, MongoHQ works very closely with 10gen to not only promote the use
of MongoDB, but to improve MongoDB as a database product.

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ericcholis
I believe that the same could be said for MongoLab, a similar service.

I also believe that both services need to be certified by 10gen before rolling
out new releases. Also, paying customers at a certain level have access to
10gen for support if the provider can't address the issue.

Long story short, both these companies have a good relationship with 10gen in
the interest of growing the space.

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benwen
MongoLab: yep, we have a similar (I'd imagine) license to the trademark.

10gen: they are awesome to work with as they know they are in for the long
game - building a full ecosystem.

Congrats to the HQ team! Always good to see further evidence that the DBaaS
market is generating healthy capital interest. Game on!

