6 ms·

My Startup - A node.js cloud hosting platform

70 points by 619Cloud 16y ago

michaelbuckbee 16y ago
I wonder if a concern they had was Heroku already moving in the direction of node.js support.
- 619Cloud 16y ago
  Funny you should ask, this was actually a question that Robert Morris asked on my YC application. I don't view Heroku as a competitor. In fact, I believe they announced that they abandoned their node.js experimental hosting. However, Joyent really has a leg up on node.js hosting, and seeing as they employ Ryan Dahl and just basically bought node.js, it could be difficult to gain market share, but I believe there is room for others to play.
  - cmelbye 16y ago
    Actually, Heroku has 1,000 people running node.js apps on their platform. The first phase of the experiment is over, but they're releasing the new version of it next year apparently. http://blog.heroku.com/archives/2010/9/20/an_update_on_heroku_node_js_support/ http://blog.heroku.com/archives/2010/9/20/an_update_on_herok...
    - 619Cloud 16y ago
      I stand corrected, but still feel Joyent is the major player at the table with four aces as of now. Plus, it will be interesting to see what salesforce.com does with the direction of Heroku.
ra 16y ago
If by denied you mean rejected, then good on you for getting on with it anyway.
jack7890 16y ago
fwiw, I love your landing page design.
shorbaji 16y ago
Do you think the fact that you proposed a cloud hosting platform was part of the reason for rejection? By the way, the landing page design looks great!
frisco 16y ago
I bet we're going to see a bunch of "Heroku for X" now that they've set a precedent. I'm not sure that's a bad thing; it's a great idea.
azrealus 16y ago
Why do you think you got rejected? It seems like a really good idea.
- jpcx01 16y ago
  Doesn't it seem a bit "me too"ish? Seems like a super crowded market with extremely capable competitors. Heroku was able to sneak in since they were the first company to offer a service like this for rails. With Joyent's amazing no.de platform, I can't imagine any business deciding to base their infrastructure on a tool that a couple developers just started and doesn't yet have stable funding or a proven business. Just my 2 cents. The landing page looks great. Hope they can pull through.
  - barfoomoo 16y ago
    Not an RoR user but wasn't Engine Yard there before Heroku? I am assuming Engine Yard and Heroku offer something similar. I might be wrong.
    - jpcx01 16y ago
      EngineYard was doing uber expensive fully managed rails hosting at the time Heroku go started. Wasn't till over a year after Heroku launched that EY launched their alternative (Solo->Cloud->??). Pretty good tools, but fairly different than Heroku. They focus on managing EC2 instances instead of Heroku's "Dynos" (small abstracted chunks of easily scalable server resources). To me EY seems like a much better version of Linode + install scripts that are targeted to Ruby users. Heroku seems to me more like Google's AppEngine, except much more expensive and without the autoscaling.
      - puredemo 16y ago
        Isn't it a little strange selling a company for $212M that is essentially just reselling EC2 with a better UI? Maybe it's just me..
  - thegoleffect 16y ago
jdp 16y ago
Does this mean you'll be doing an offer HN? ;) We've been getting spoiled lately. I definitely want to give you a guys a try, see how you stack up against Joyent's node hosting.
- 619Cloud 16y ago
  Yeap, we will have a private beta with HN peps getting priority.
erreon 16y ago
Is it scary to think that Heroku is aiming at Node.js? I'm not sure if I'd be scared or if it'd convince me I'm going in the right direction.
thomasswift 16y ago
I signed up, I look forward to giving your service a try in the future!
Klonoar 16y ago
It's a nice page design and all, but on top of the solutions provided by Heroku and Joyent, there already exists NodeJitsu, which seems pretty solid. Are you offering anything different here? Seems like a bit of "me too" syndrome. http://nodejitsu.com/ http://nodejitsu.com/
- maraksquires 16y ago
  I'll chime in here although I might be a bit biased ( co-founder of Nodejitsu). I'm always glad to see more attention to node.js, but it's a bit discouraging to see something like this with no substance to back it up. The Nodejitsu team has been working on our node.js platform as a service for a while now, and we've released a bunch of open-source software back to the community along the way. http://github.com/nodejitsu/ http://github.com/nodejitsu/ http://blog.nodejitsu.com/ http://blog.nodejitsu.com/ I'd rather go with a trusted source than a company who struggles with basic git knowledge. http://groups.google.com/group/nodejs/browse_thread/thread/5d1bc2da2b472b2c http://groups.google.com/group/nodejs/browse_thread/thread/5...
- robinduckett 16y ago
  I hate to be a buzzkill but none of these seem to have launched yet, are you in nodejitsu's private beta?
  - maraksquires 16y ago
    robinduckett - Haven't seen you online in a while, let's get you into the beta! I sent you a message on github, hit me back.
chriskelley 16y ago
Like the landing page - but you've got a typo! Under the Dedicated Cloud Servers headline: "Scale severs up and down on the fly!" Should of course be "servers", not "severs." Good luck with the new endeavor!
dreyfiz 16y ago
Your writing takes all the sex out of it-that doesn't give me a lot of confidence in your product. Heroku's copy is balls to the wall, yours is putting me to sleep. I'll give you a critique based on my own prejudices, for whatever it's worth: Typos: "severs"; "your" should be "you're". Also, you have your own capitalization scheme for "Node.js Camp", perhaps for emphasis? "Meet up" is two words, not one. Tone/confidence: Heroku's top billing is "rock-solid ruby platform". Yours is "a node.js cloud hosting platform". Heroku characterizes itself reassuringly as well as describing itself mechanically. "node.js cloud hosting platform" is a dead fish of a phrase. "COMING SOON!" When-ish? Why shouldn't I just bounce off your page? "Provision servers; build node.js apps; deploy!" Deathly boring copy. You can always tell when someone isn't smiling with their whole face, and the exclamation mark at the end is a fake smile. Compare the confidence of Sinatra's copy to the vague, insincerely jaunty feel of yours ("put this in your pipe/and smoke it". http://www.sinatrarb.com/ http://www.sinatrarb.com/ What is "provision servers"? Is it like dynos or EC2 instances? I don't understand what your technology is, and whether you're building a truly rich app platform like Heroku or just a thin layer of UI on top of EC2. Heroku really sells me on how cool their engineering is. Do you not talk about it because you have nothing cool to talk about? If you do, you should really start talking about what you're building. "We provide simple, scalable, and powerful node.js hosting for node.js developers in the cloud." A vague, limp snoozefest. "Developers should focus on hacking cool node.js applications, let us handle hosting, deployment, and scaling." This is insincere and it reads wrong. You sound like you're out of touch, trying to appeal to the cool kids with stilted language. "Dedicated Cloud Servers": so is this actually an application platform? It doesn't sound like it. "Git + SVN Integration": your target market probably isn't using svn.
- 619Cloud 16y ago
  Thanks for pointing out the typos, fixed em up. Also, thanks for the feedback, you certainly have spot on comments. Writing marketing/copy text, is an art form, which I have not yet perfected, but still a work in progress.
  - puredemo 16y ago
    You might look into getting a more brandable domain name as well. I registered trynode.com a couple weeks ago, for instance. There are plenty of strong names out there. nodedemo.com, nodejump.com, nodegem.com, noderun.com -- all available.
mwill 16y ago
My first thought was 'Looks nice, sounds dull' You need to make your service sound like it stands out from nodejitsu or heroku, even if you already have a more comprehensive service, it doesn't sound like you do. Crank the hype up to 11. Aside from that its great to see another node.js hosting related startup on the scene, I hope to give you a try sometime in the future.
robinduckett 16y ago
Your submit form doesn't seem to work in Firefox 4.
joelg87 16y ago
I wish you the best of luck, I think the success of Heroku certainly indicates something similar is needed for node.js (although perhaps they will do something there soon anyway..). My main concern is your name. Heroku can move towards node.js because their name doesn't tie them to any single technology. You might want to change your name so you can consider other technologies.
GrahamHolborn 16y ago
Goodluck Justin
risotto 16y ago
Pricing?

70 points by 619Cloud 16y ago

michaelbuckbee 16y ago

I wonder if a concern they had was Heroku already moving in the direction of node.js support.

619Cloud 16y ago
Funny you should ask, this was actually a question that Robert Morris asked on my YC application. I don't view Heroku as a competitor. In fact, I believe they announced that they abandoned their node.js experimental hosting. However, Joyent really has a leg up on node.js hosting, and seeing as they employ Ryan Dahl and just basically bought node.js, it could be difficult to gain market share, but I believe there is room for others to play.
- cmelbye 16y ago
  Actually, Heroku has 1,000 people running node.js apps on their platform. The first phase of the experiment is over, but they're releasing the new version of it next year apparently. http://blog.heroku.com/archives/2010/9/20/an_update_on_heroku_node_js_support/ http://blog.heroku.com/archives/2010/9/20/an_update_on_herok...
  - 619Cloud 16y ago
    I stand corrected, but still feel Joyent is the major player at the table with four aces as of now. Plus, it will be interesting to see what salesforce.com does with the direction of Heroku.

ra 16y ago

If by denied you mean rejected, then good on you for getting on with it anyway.

jack7890 16y ago

fwiw, I love your landing page design.

shorbaji 16y ago

Do you think the fact that you proposed a cloud hosting platform was part of the reason for rejection? By the way, the landing page design looks great!

frisco 16y ago

I bet we're going to see a bunch of "Heroku for X" now that they've set a precedent. I'm not sure that's a bad thing; it's a great idea.

azrealus 16y ago

Why do you think you got rejected? It seems like a really good idea.

jpcx01 16y ago
Doesn't it seem a bit "me too"ish? Seems like a super crowded market with extremely capable competitors. Heroku was able to sneak in since they were the first company to offer a service like this for rails. With Joyent's amazing no.de platform, I can't imagine any business deciding to base their infrastructure on a tool that a couple developers just started and doesn't yet have stable funding or a proven business. Just my 2 cents. The landing page looks great. Hope they can pull through.
- barfoomoo 16y ago
  Not an RoR user but wasn't Engine Yard there before Heroku? I am assuming Engine Yard and Heroku offer something similar. I might be wrong.
  - jpcx01 16y ago
    EngineYard was doing uber expensive fully managed rails hosting at the time Heroku go started. Wasn't till over a year after Heroku launched that EY launched their alternative (Solo->Cloud->??). Pretty good tools, but fairly different than Heroku. They focus on managing EC2 instances instead of Heroku's "Dynos" (small abstracted chunks of easily scalable server resources). To me EY seems like a much better version of Linode + install scripts that are targeted to Ruby users. Heroku seems to me more like Google's AppEngine, except much more expensive and without the autoscaling.
    - puredemo 16y ago
      Isn't it a little strange selling a company for $212M that is essentially just reselling EC2 with a better UI? Maybe it's just me..
- thegoleffect 16y ago

jdp 16y ago

Does this mean you'll be doing an offer HN? ;) We've been getting spoiled lately. I definitely want to give you a guys a try, see how you stack up against Joyent's node hosting.

619Cloud 16y ago
Yeap, we will have a private beta with HN peps getting priority.

erreon 16y ago

Is it scary to think that Heroku is aiming at Node.js? I'm not sure if I'd be scared or if it'd convince me I'm going in the right direction.

thomasswift 16y ago

I signed up, I look forward to giving your service a try in the future!

Klonoar 16y ago

It's a nice page design and all, but on top of the solutions provided by Heroku and Joyent, there already exists NodeJitsu, which seems pretty solid. Are you offering anything different here? Seems like a bit of "me too" syndrome. http://nodejitsu.com/ http://nodejitsu.com/

maraksquires 16y ago
I'll chime in here although I might be a bit biased ( co-founder of Nodejitsu). I'm always glad to see more attention to node.js, but it's a bit discouraging to see something like this with no substance to back it up. The Nodejitsu team has been working on our node.js platform as a service for a while now, and we've released a bunch of open-source software back to the community along the way. http://github.com/nodejitsu/ http://github.com/nodejitsu/ http://blog.nodejitsu.com/ http://blog.nodejitsu.com/ I'd rather go with a trusted source than a company who struggles with basic git knowledge. http://groups.google.com/group/nodejs/browse_thread/thread/5d1bc2da2b472b2c http://groups.google.com/group/nodejs/browse_thread/thread/5...
robinduckett 16y ago
I hate to be a buzzkill but none of these seem to have launched yet, are you in nodejitsu's private beta?
- maraksquires 16y ago
  robinduckett - Haven't seen you online in a while, let's get you into the beta! I sent you a message on github, hit me back.

chriskelley 16y ago

Like the landing page - but you've got a typo! Under the Dedicated Cloud Servers headline: "Scale severs up and down on the fly!" Should of course be "servers", not "severs." Good luck with the new endeavor!

dreyfiz 16y ago

Your writing takes all the sex out of it-that doesn't give me a lot of confidence in your product. Heroku's copy is balls to the wall, yours is putting me to sleep. I'll give you a critique based on my own prejudices, for whatever it's worth: Typos: "severs"; "your" should be "you're". Also, you have your own capitalization scheme for "Node.js Camp", perhaps for emphasis? "Meet up" is two words, not one. Tone/confidence: Heroku's top billing is "rock-solid ruby platform". Yours is "a node.js cloud hosting platform". Heroku characterizes itself reassuringly as well as describing itself mechanically. "node.js cloud hosting platform" is a dead fish of a phrase. "COMING SOON!" When-ish? Why shouldn't I just bounce off your page? "Provision servers; build node.js apps; deploy!" Deathly boring copy. You can always tell when someone isn't smiling with their whole face, and the exclamation mark at the end is a fake smile. Compare the confidence of Sinatra's copy to the vague, insincerely jaunty feel of yours ("put this in your pipe/and smoke it". http://www.sinatrarb.com/ http://www.sinatrarb.com/ What is "provision servers"? Is it like dynos or EC2 instances? I don't understand what your technology is, and whether you're building a truly rich app platform like Heroku or just a thin layer of UI on top of EC2. Heroku really sells me on how cool their engineering is. Do you not talk about it because you have nothing cool to talk about? If you do, you should really start talking about what you're building. "We provide simple, scalable, and powerful node.js hosting for node.js developers in the cloud." A vague, limp snoozefest. "Developers should focus on hacking cool node.js applications, let us handle hosting, deployment, and scaling." This is insincere and it reads wrong. You sound like you're out of touch, trying to appeal to the cool kids with stilted language. "Dedicated Cloud Servers": so is this actually an application platform? It doesn't sound like it. "Git + SVN Integration": your target market probably isn't using svn.

619Cloud 16y ago
Thanks for pointing out the typos, fixed em up. Also, thanks for the feedback, you certainly have spot on comments. Writing marketing/copy text, is an art form, which I have not yet perfected, but still a work in progress.
- puredemo 16y ago
  You might look into getting a more brandable domain name as well. I registered trynode.com a couple weeks ago, for instance. There are plenty of strong names out there. nodedemo.com, nodejump.com, nodegem.com, noderun.com -- all available.

mwill 16y ago

My first thought was 'Looks nice, sounds dull' You need to make your service sound like it stands out from nodejitsu or heroku, even if you already have a more comprehensive service, it doesn't sound like you do. Crank the hype up to 11. Aside from that its great to see another node.js hosting related startup on the scene, I hope to give you a try sometime in the future.

robinduckett 16y ago

Your submit form doesn't seem to work in Firefox 4.

joelg87 16y ago

I wish you the best of luck, I think the success of Heroku certainly indicates something similar is needed for node.js (although perhaps they will do something there soon anyway..). My main concern is your name. Heroku can move towards node.js because their name doesn't tie them to any single technology. You might want to change your name so you can consider other technologies.

GrahamHolborn 16y ago

Goodluck Justin

risotto 16y ago

Pricing?