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Lessons Learned in Building Web Start-ups from the Garage

Mark Fletcher shares his insights on birthing and building successful web start-ups, including the garage philosophy, software and hardware choices, and SysAdmin tips.

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Lessons Learned in Building Web Start-ups from the Garage

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  1. From the Garage: Lessons Learned Birthing and Building Web Start-ups Mark Fletcher VP & GM, Bloglines at Ask Jeeves March 17, 2005

  2. Garage Philosophy • Passion for the idea • Cheap technologies • Keep it simple • Release Early/Release Often • Involve your users

  3. Garage Philosophy • Moonlighting limits risk • Friends/Family funds • Free services = less pressure • Web services APIs are a good thing • Hire a lawyer • Find good help, especially sys admin • Outsource to eLance

  4. Architecture 101: Registration-Based Web Sites • Front-End • Web servers • Mail servers • Back-End • User database • Other databases, storage

  5. Software Choices • DBJ (http://cr.yp.to) • qmail • DJBDNS • Daemontools • ClearSilver (http://www.clearsilver.net) • Berkeley DB (http://www.sleepycat.com)

  6. Software Choices • Linux/Apache • C/C++/bash/python • Skiplist data structure • Avoid NFS • Avoid table-level locking in MySQL

  7. Hardware Choices • Dedicated servers vs. Buying/Hosting • Design for cheap hardware • eBay! • APC PDUs for remote power cycling • HP ProCurve • Avoid Seagate Ultra-SCSI drives • Good phone for SSH

  8. Architecture Choices • Copying files vs. Client/Server • Bloglines News RSS Feed • Calculate on the fly vs. Cache • Subscriber counts • Memory vs. Disk • Notifications

  9. Storage Choices • Relational DB vs. Flat Files • RAID vs. Redundant • ONElist/eGroups with hardware RAID • Bloglines without hardware RAID • Linux Software RAID 1

  10. SysAdmin Choices • DNS round robin for web servers • Hot back-ups for off-line processing • Worry about cooling in the co-lo

  11. Avoid Making Stupid Bets…

  12. Avoid Making Stupid Bets…

  13. Questions?

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