I was in the startup world in the early 2010s, and saw MongoDB used in a number of startups (over ~5 years).
These companies included everything from very early stage Y Combinator backed startups to one of the most famous unicorns (tech issues at growing companies are rarely discussed publicly, so I was lucky that my friends were willing to privately share; compare that to successful tech decisions, which are widely discussed and blogged).
In that time, I heard many stories about the issues companies had with it - and angry debates about whether it was the right choice. In the early years, you were ancient if you used something more conventional than Mongo; in later years, you were dumb if you used Mongo in many startups (both views have their issues).
I wanted to understand:
- Why was MongoDB so popular
- What issues did startup engineers have with it
- Given these issues, why was it chosen in the first place
And most importantly, what lessons does this case study have for future dev tool decisions.
These companies included everything from very early stage Y Combinator backed startups to one of the most famous unicorns (tech issues at growing companies are rarely discussed publicly, so I was lucky that my friends were willing to privately share; compare that to successful tech decisions, which are widely discussed and blogged).
In that time, I heard many stories about the issues companies had with it - and angry debates about whether it was the right choice. In the early years, you were ancient if you used something more conventional than Mongo; in later years, you were dumb if you used Mongo in many startups (both views have their issues).
I wanted to understand:
- Why was MongoDB so popular
- What issues did startup engineers have with it
- Given these issues, why was it chosen in the first place
And most importantly, what lessons does this case study have for future dev tool decisions.