How Levels.fyi scaled to millions of users with Google Sheets as a backend

Question

Premature optimization is the death knell of startups.

It’s why we started off on Google Forms and Google Sheets, taking us to millions of monthly active users before having to switch over to a proper backend. We got a chance to write about some of the magic that made it all work.

Figured it could be interesting for folks to start up their own projects without having to setup DBs or other infrastructure: https://www.levels.fyi/blog/scaling-to-millions-with-google-sheets.html

madscience · Accepted Answer

Very cool, thank you for sharing! I definitely find myself getting into the trap of 'premature optimization,' so seeing your thoughts on it here adds a really cool perspective.

19g6yl30dow7z · Answer

Everyone forgets that Sheets/Excel are really fancy databases with built-in scripting… they’re every b2b startup’s biggest competitor

How Levels.fyi scaled to millions of users with Google Sheets as a backend

About

Software Engineer

Members