Ask HN: How do newly launched YC startups encrypt data in their db's?
Do recently launched startups of YC encrypt their data, say for example using Client Side Field Level Encryption in MongoDB (or similar)?
On the other hand if somebody gets access to a database account or gets root access to cloud VMs they can usually read your data anyway even if it's encrypted at rest. I would worry about that before implementing more complex client side encryption schemes. Besides the question of where you spend time it's possible to make a mistake and end up locked out of your data.
If users explicitly ask for encryption that's a different matter. However, many enterprise users don't really care what you do as they avoid liability if you mess up. In this sense contractual terms like the scope of limitations of liability or indemnification are the user-visible product "features." You should at least think of them that way and price accordingly. You might encrypt in that case to make them cheaper to implement.
It's a good idea to point out to be careful, since getting locked out of your own data would certainly be annoying.