A simple prototype that you can build quickly is invaluable when building a company.
Airtable is the perfect datastore for a prototype:
Sure, Airtable can't scale to hundreds of thousands of records - but to validate an idea it's the perfect data store.
Then, to manage business logic, use AWS Lambda. Lambda functions can handle validation and the nuances of your app in ways that Airtable's REST API alone cannot. Plus, managing logic in Lambda is easier than putting everything in Airtable formulas.
Together, Airtable and AWS Lambda can be the perfect backend for your prototype.
In this tutorial, we'll walk step by step through how to setup a custom API using AWS Lambda and Airtable.
Full disclosure, the tutorial includes my product, Sync Inc, but you could just as easily use the REST API or Airtable.JS.