Early-stage startups face a paradox: you need infrastructure that can scale, but you cannot afford to build for scale you might never reach. The answer is not to over-engineer from day one, but to make smart architectural choices that keep your options open.
Start Simple, Stay Modular
For most startups, a single server or serverless function can handle your first 10,000 users. Start with a monolith -- it is faster to develop, easier to debug, and simpler to deploy. The key is to keep your code modular so you can extract services later when you actually need to scale.
Choose Your Cloud Provider Wisely
AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure all offer generous startup credits. Choose based on your team's existing expertise, not feature comparisons. The differences between providers matter far less than your team's ability to move fast.
Database Strategy
Use PostgreSQL unless you have a compelling reason not to. It handles relational data, JSON, full-text search, and geospatial queries. For most early-stage startups, a single managed PostgreSQL instance is all you need. Add Redis for caching and rate limiting when performance requires it.
Infrastructure as Code from Day One
Even if your infrastructure is simple, define it in code using tools like Terraform or Pulumi. This discipline pays enormous dividends when you need to replicate environments, onboard new engineers, or recover from incidents.
Monitoring and Observability
You cannot improve what you do not measure. Set up basic monitoring from day one: application logs, error tracking, and uptime monitoring. As you grow, add APM, distributed tracing, and custom metrics.
