Ask HN: Does tech stack matters when starting a new business?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19789252

by codecors • 7 years ago

6 9 7 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

geekab• 7 years ago

For business I don't think tech stack matters that much but for developers, it matters. Good and young developers avoid working on dull technologies as they don't see future in those.

verdverm2• 7 years ago

Also, for hiring generally, more popular technology will get more quality candidates through the door.

If you outsource your initial product and become successful, you will inevitably bring development in house. I'm currently helping a company do a complete rewrite from PHP and docker shenanigans to languages that are easier to hire for and correct usage of a modern tool (containers).

codezombiee• 7 years ago

I think the tech matters because on the scale some languages can create problems for you

verdverm2• 7 years ago

Beyond languages, DevOps and process are helpful to start on the right foot. This can have multiplicative benefits as scaling becomes a concern.

thijsvandien• 7 years ago

It matters in the sense that it shouldn't distract you from your business goals. Pick something you're familiar with.

templ1231• 7 years ago

No, unless the product you are building requires a certain language.

If you are using machine learning in your startup, then the standard language is python. You should use python.

However, if it is just a simple CRUD app, I have seen startups still using Ruby on Rails and Node.js. These are startups that were founded in 2017 2018.

It makes sense because what language you use doesn't matter much. By the time you have scaling problems, you can hire better programmers.

_ah• 7 years ago

The most important part of starting a new business is making sure the business doesn't die. You need to write software and find product/market fit. Anything that detracts from these goals is a problem.

If you're bootstrapping, pick technology that you're familiar and comfortable with. Great businesses have been built on the back of PHP. Do not attempt to build a business and learn new tech at the same time... they are different tasks.

If you have some investor money and will be hiring people, optimize for productive, non-bleeding-edge tech that will be easy to hire for. Go for something well-known with a wide talent pool (ex: React).

Once your business doesn't die, you can go about fixing the tech stack and making something better. This is not a waste! You probably would have to do this anyway. Your first choice of technology almost doesn't matter in the long run. Optimize for early velocity and then figure it out later.

avichalp• 7 years ago

It doesn't matter.

- For most new businesses the main challenge is finding a product market fit. So you should use something that will let iterate faster.

- If you aim to build a great team. Attract talent. Go for quality over quantity. Most programming languages have a community around them. Find a community that shares your values. Going for non-mainstream languages often attracts some high caliber people.

gshdg• 7 years ago

Only within certain parameters. If you choose a stack that you or your early employees don’t know well or that it’s difficult to hire for, that will affect your trajectory.

But if you’re choosing between broadly comparable common stacks with comparable ecosystems, there’s no wrong choice. AWS vs Azure? Laravel vs Rails? Angular vs React? MySQL vs Postgres? Yes, there are tradeoffs, but unless those deeply affect very specific key needs (hint: for the vast majority of startups they don’t), you’ll do fine with either.

Ask HN: Does tech stack matters when starting a new business?

Related Stories