[jv22222]

I hate this conventional wisdom idea and it really doesn't need to be that way in many cases.

Companies like Mailchimp and 37 Signals prove that the "logical" way to do it works pretty well.

(Not a criticism of your comment, just the get big fast idea)

[bartread]

I'm inclined to agree with you. It's not my field but I suspect VC pressure has something to do with it: they need their 10x returns, or their unicorns, to make up for all the losses elsewhere and "get big fast" is the most reliable mechanism for doing that. Not suggesting I'm a fan of it, btw.

[user5994461]

It's a market issue. Databases are a very competitive business with lots of options and competitors. It is also extremely hard to sell.

[_Codemonkeyism]

Mailchimp is rather large, but 2017 I have the feeling 37Signals is rather insignificant, e.g. compared to Slack.

[johnchristopher]

FWIW when I was still a student and not in a 9-5 I wondered what if would feel like to use basecamp. Now here I am happily going with flow using slack on the fre eplan. One of my coworkers sometimes asks if we shouldn't go with a subscription to have the whole logs but we rarely have to dive so far in the past at all.