Case Studies
Five Questions with Aaron Freed of Divvy.
Neat idea. Tell us more about Divvy and where you hope to see it making inroads.
Instead of posting public lists, we enable the creation of private networks: think Ning meets Craigslist for the purpose of billing and/or scheduling stuff, services and (soon) events. We target pre-existing affinity groups in order to minimize risk, yet still allow for better utilization and monetization of under-utilized assets. Divvy provides a great enterprise solution for communities such as condominiums and churches, but we’re particularly excited about ad hoc circles of friends and family using Divvy to share cars, vacation homes, and roto-tillers, etc… The rental market is a $100 billion dollar industry, excluding real estate, which implies a vast opportunity for people to ‘share the wealth’ by renting from each other on invitation-only networks hosted by Engine Yard.
Why did you choose Ruby on Rails for Divvy?
Because it was known to be a more agile and cost effective way to develop web sites, and with shorter development timelines.
How did you come to partner with Engine Yard?
We started working on Divvy about two years ago. Originally, we hosted development with another company, but that provider proved unreliable and slow. We knew that we would need a more reliable solution for our customers. Word on the street was that Engine Yard was especially adept at hosting production Rails applications. We wouldn’t have made our launch in mid-September at TechCrunch without Engine Yard’s help.
How did Engine Yard help you get to launch?
There was a lot of 11th hour work and we pulled two all-nighters. We turned a hotel room into an office and each of us was simultaneously sending tickets to Engine Yard at all hours. Engine Yard representatives from all over the world were quickly getting back to us; they worked with us all through the night. I was so impressed with the quick turns on every issue. And, when we didn’t get back to Engine Yard quickly, the reps pressed us for answers to keep things moving. Working with Engine Yard, I felt like I had a fully staffed IT department at my disposal.
In the days leading up to launch, I also talked to Engine Yard about how we would handle possible spikes in traffic once going public. Engine Yard generously offered to increase memory allocation and load balancing—for free—to accommodate potential jumps in traffic. I can’t say enough good things about Engine Yard.
Do you have any advice to share with other developers just getting started with Rails?
Prototype. Prototype. Prototype. Build your entire site in Keynote or PowerPoint before a single line of code is written. And when you’re ready to go live, give Engine Yard a call.