The archive · Developer & Business Tools · Product decision · 2009–2010
RethinkDB raises $1.2M seed to bet SSDs on a ground-up MySQL engine
YC S09 startup builds a MySQL storage engine from scratch for solid-state drives and raises $1.2M from a16z, Highland, CRV and Avalon
RethinkDB
What the business is
A database startup offering a MySQL storage engine built from the ground up for solid-state drives, with append-only algorithms, lock-free concurrency and live schema changes
Starting capital：US$1.2M seed announced 2010-04-01 with Highland Capital Partners, Avalon Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and Charles River Ventures, plus angels including Paul Buchheit, Steve Chen, Udi Manber, Brian Pokorny, Russell Siegelman and Dave Pell; RethinkDB had earlier taken undisclosed funding in YC's summer 2009 program
How it started
RethinkDB came through Y Combinator's summer 2009 batch, where it took early funding while building what TechCrunch called a MySQL storage engine built from the ground up for solid-state drives. By April 2010 it was still a small team betting that flash would replace spinning disks and that engines designed around platter behavior were the wrong foundation.
What happened
On 2010-04-01 the startup closed a $1.2M seed round. The investor list was Highland Capital Partners, Avalon Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and Charles River Ventures, with angels including Brian Pokorny, Paul Buchheit, Google VP Udi Manber, YouTube founder Steve Chen, Russell Siegelman and Dave Pell. TechCrunch read the roster as a big vote of confidence and said the money would go toward adding developers to the still-small team.
No ending yet — it is still running.
Background
RethinkDB is a database startup from Y Combinator's summer 2009 batch. Its product was a MySQL storage engine built from the ground up for solid-state drives, using append-only algorithms, lock-free concurrency and live schema changes to exploit flash instead of assuming spinning platters.
On April 1, 2010, TechCrunch reported that RethinkDB had closed a $1.2M seed round. Highland Capital Partners, Avalon Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and Charles River Ventures took part, joined by angels including Paul Buchheit, Steve Chen, Google VP Udi Manber, Brian Pokorny, Russell Siegelman and Dave Pell.
The bet was timing: solid-state drives — the kind of disk you find in an iPhone — looked like the future of storage, fast and free of moving parts. RethinkDB planned to spend the money adding developers to its still-small team. TechCrunch framed the risk bluntly: this is the sort of thing that will either never gain traction or become very successful.
What has to be true
- The bet was on a hardware transition, not a feature: if SSDs became mainstream storage, engines tuned for spinning disks would be the wrong foundation
- It attacked adoption risk with compatibility: a MySQL storage engine lets existing MySQL users change storage layers instead of rewriting applications
- Marquee VCs and angels gave a contrarian thesis the credibility and runway to fund development before the SSD market matured
- TechCrunch's own framing captured the binary risk: the product would either never gain traction or become very successful
What can be applied
A contrarian bet on new hardware needs marquee backers to fund years of work before the market arrives — adoption, not engineering, decides whether it never gains traction or becomes very successful
Aftermath
As of 2010-04-01 RethinkDB had just announced its $1.2M seed round and remained a small team building an SSD-native MySQL storage engine; the money was earmarked for hiring more developers. Its evidence of attention to that date was a Y Combinator Summer 2009 slot, the TechCrunch announcement and an HN discussion at 114 points with 42 comments
Sources
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