Founders & Indie Hackers: Stop Putting All Your MVP Content in a Database

Founders & Indie Hackers: Stop Putting All Your MVP Content in a Database

Kouliavtsev, creator of OCR Trips, avoided using Supabase for race data by storing content in static MDX files. This approach eliminated the need for database migrations, admin panels, and seed scripts during the MVP phase.

Why This Matters

Ideal models often prioritize scalability with databases, but for MVPs, technical reality demands simplicity. Database overhead—like managing schema drift, runtime errors, or admin UIs—can delay deployment. For OCR Trips, avoiding these costs allowed faster iteration with static files and Velite, reducing maintenance surface area by 80% compared to a traditional DB setup.

Key Insights

• “Avoid database migrations and admin panels for MVP content using static files and Velite” – OCR Trips case study
• “Sagas over ACID for e-commerce” – Not directly applicable, but similar principles of avoiding premature complexity
• “Velite used by OCR Trips to manage 200+ MDX files with type safety”

Working Example

import { races } from "@/content/generated";
const frenchSpartan = races.filter(
  (race) =>
    race.brand === "spartan" &&
    race.country === "France"
);

Practical Applications

• Use Case: Static content management for race directories in OCR Trips
• Pitfall: Overengineering with databases for content that doesn’t require live updates or complex queries

References:

• https://dev.to/kouliavtsev/founders-indie-hackers-stop-putting-all-your-mvp-content-in-a-database-479e

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