MongoDB helps you be Lean - Brilliant for Startups

Context: I’ve just spent every spare hour of my life for two weeks working on a product, and yesterday evening I launched it.

This time around I opted for a NoSQL approach - I took a gamble that the amount of upfront time required to learn a new technology would be less than designing a SQL schema then migrating it for each and every tweak.

This gamble paid off I think - it was a joy to work with Mongo, especially as I used a hosted solution from MongoHQ. Whenever I needed a new feature I just hacked the (currently tiny) database to the new “schema” - lightning fast.

The next test will be to see it running at large scale - if I ever get there. But that’s just the point isn’t it? If I do ever get to scale, I would have a great reason to invest in some SQL design time, and a far better understanding of the requirements.

Until now I haven’t really understood this NoSQL craze, but for me it makes an awful lot of sense if you’re at all interested in lean startups.

Got any Mongo horror stories? Leave a comment below.