FathomDB
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
Some sections are still being researched2 / 4
Sections to complete：02 · 05
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
FathomDB was a Y Combinator Winter 2008 startup founded by Justin Santa Barbara that set out to build a fault-tolerant, scalable relational database service hosted on Amazon EC2: automated database backups and real-time performance monitoring, with MySQL and NoSQL support plus the ability to watch how data changed and push changes to users. Amazon launched its own cloud database service (RDS) shortly after FathomDB went online in 2009; the startup never raised follow-up funding after YC and went quiet for years, though it later added Rackspace support. In October 2014, Meteor — the well-funded JavaScript development platform — acquired FathomDB and its database technology, with Santa Barbara joining Meteor.
02 / FAILURE REASONS
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Founded
FathomDB was founded by Justin Santa Barbara and joined Y Combinator's Winter 2008 class to build a fault-tolerant, scalable relational database service.
- Launched; Amazon RDS arrives
FathomDB launched its database service on Amazon EC2 in 2009; Amazon launched its own cloud database service (RDS) shortly after, undercutting the startup's premise.
- Acquired
In October 2014, Meteor acquired FathomDB and its database technology; founder Justin Santa Barbara joined Meteor to continue the work.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN / AFTERMATH
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.