Company
Date Published
Author
Jimmy Zelinskie
Word count
868
Language
English
Hacker News points
None

Summary

As a YC startup, the company deliberately ignores Paul Graham's advice to "do things that don't scale" when developing SpiceDB, an open-source foundation for its products. The development of software is expensive, and scalability is required for authorization systems, which was previously lacking until Google published their internal system, Zanzibar. The MVP's authorization doesn't need to scale, but as the company grows, it will be necessary to address complex access models. Scaling isn't exclusive to traffic, but rather a requirement in various dimensions such as feature development, development velocity, geographies, and eventually traffic. Many teams struggle to implement beyond basic authorization due to lack of focus and time, leading to a breaking point where a new authorization system must be built. The company created SpiceDB to share expertise and connect developers with authorization experts, fostering an ecosystem for secure systems that scale with their needs.