5 ms·

ReadMe (YC W15) Raises 9M Series A from Accel and Y Combinator

63 points by iMuzz 7y ago

luc4sdreyer 7y ago
> Prior to today’s funding announcement, the company had taken just a $1.2 million seed round in 2014. Today, it reports 3,000 paying customers and that it has been profitable for the last several years Well there is something you don't see every day. I'm impressed by how far they've come. If in 2015 you told me you're starting a company that helps companies customize their API documentation, I would have marked you as a particularly shiny unicorn.
gkoberger 7y ago
Founder here! I know funding news isn't always a match for HN, but I'm glad someone posted it here since HN is where it all started. Here's our launch, if anyone wants to go back and look: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8422408 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8422408
- sytse 7y ago
  Congrats on the raise. Interesting to use to API logs to provide better debugging and support. Can you give an example?
  - gkoberger 7y ago
    Thanks Sid! Let's say you get back an error. We've made it so the API creator can link in the response to a unique page in the docs, where they'll see their actual API log. They can see exactly what the server saw and returned, replay the request, and more. If an error code is returned, the API creator can write out what the error means and how to fix it. If that's not enough, they can open a support ticket on ReadMe, and include the logs that seem broken. That way, both sides are looking at the same API logs, and know things like what SDK is being used or if the data is URL encoded properly. Lastly, we're going to build tools that are more proactive. Like, if a customer is getting a certain threshold of errors in production, we'll make it easy to trigger an email to them with a warning.
    - sytse 7y ago
      Nice, that could be really useful. Bringing back hypermedia to programming interfaces.
    - mobee 7y ago
      Guess what's going to be part of the next GitLab release...
- forgotmypw 7y ago
  FYI, this link I found somewhere redirects to a 404: http://readme.io/home http://readme.io/home
  - gkoberger 7y ago
    Fixed, thank you! We think we used that URL when we submitted to HN a few years ago because the root domain had already been submitted: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6397526 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6397526 (I ended up offering to pay for it!)
- guscost 7y ago
  Hey Greg! I don’t know if you remember, but one time we got I think third place at an RIT hackathon. It was really cool to find out that you were the founder of readme after hearing about it (and asking for the budget to buy it). Congratulations on the Series A!!
- gkoberger 7y ago
  Also, we're hiring! https://readme.com/careers https://readme.com/careers Engineers, support, solutions engineer, dev evangelist, content writer (with a technical background), and more! If you don't see the right job, email greg@readme.io!
- tosh 7y ago
  kudos!
choward 7y ago
I've read pretty much everything on the site and between the high level marketing speak and generic wireframes, I have no idea what it does or what problem it actually solves. There's even a link if you hover over about that says "Learn about why we exist". I thought for sure that would have something, but it's just a list of all the employees. It looks like the only way to figure out what it actually does is to sign up. If had come across their site without any context I would have assumed it was a generic marketing site template that needed to be filled in. I'm sorry for being so negative, but I am interested in documentation related technology and it bugs me that I can't for the life of me figure out what this is after seing things posted about it on Hackernews for the last few years.
- gkoberger 7y ago
  Hey! We do API documentation, plus a bunch of other tools. All the logos are click-able (for example: https://developers.intercom.com/ https://developers.intercom.com/) if you want an example. So, basically, we sit at developer.whatever.com, and take care of everything from reference guides to marketing pages to tutorials to support forums. If you have any more questions or feedback, feel free to email me at greg@readme.io! We're always updating the homepage, so we'll definitely do our best to make it more clear in the future!
  - choward 7y ago
    Thanks, I think I understand now. I honestly would have never guessed those were clickable without hovering. All I did was scroll. I didn't move the cursor so I also didn't notice the image change on mouse over.
  - guptaneil 7y ago
    Cool product, but +1 on better links. I’d definitely add a big demo button on the homepage. I just wanted to see how the docs look, but flipped through 3 pages and couldn’t find a single real screenshot or link. Finally just went to Trello’s docs myself to see an example. Also, the company logos don’t appear at all on an iPad in portrait mode.
- 7y ago
bg0 7y ago
[you're right]
- bretpiatt 7y ago
  $100 is 1/50th of a $5,000 per month employee. From looking at your business from the website in your profile it feels like high quality API docs could speed up many members of the team. It's hard to evaluate situations from the outside so I could also be totally off. At Jungle Disk we consume a ton of tools and they are all easily positive ROI. Good people are hard to find and expensive vs. SaaS subscriptions.
  - paggle 7y ago
    Where on God’s green earth do you have a $5,000 per month employee writing API documentation?
    - gkoberger 7y ago
      I'm not sure if your reaction is because it's high or low! WIt's not just writing. ReadMe doesn't write anything for you. You'd have to build the "platform" before anything is actually written. But $5k/mo works out to be a ~$30k salary after taxes.
      - paggle 7y ago
        Because it’s low of course. You actually have $60k employees who can write API docs?
foobaw 7y ago
Big reason why Readme really didn't work for us was because - we wanted one secured internal knowledge base and one external knowledge base but that was not easily supported. Also we needed integration with Zendesk because we wanted to re-direct customers to our KB but that was not easily done.
- gkoberger 7y ago
  Feel free to reach out to greg@readme.io if you're still interested! You can have multiple projects, and the internal ones can be secured in a variety of ways (OAuth, site-wide password, admins only). As for Zendesk, we have an integration (the little modal popup thingy), or you can disable our support forums and redirect any sub-URL to Zendesk! It still might not be the right fit, however I'd love to talk more if you have feedback or thoughts!

63 points by iMuzz 7y ago

> Prior to today’s funding announcement, the company had taken just a $1.2 million seed round in 2014. Today, it reports 3,000 paying customers and that it has been profitable for the last several years Well there is something you don't see every day. I'm impressed by how far they've come. If in 2015 you told me you're starting a company that helps companies customize their API documentation, I would have marked you as a particularly shiny unicorn.

gkoberger 7y ago

Founder here! I know funding news isn't always a match for HN, but I'm glad someone posted it here since HN is where it all started. Here's our launch, if anyone wants to go back and look: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8422408 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8422408

sytse 7y ago
Congrats on the raise. Interesting to use to API logs to provide better debugging and support. Can you give an example?
- gkoberger 7y ago
  Thanks Sid! Let's say you get back an error. We've made it so the API creator can link in the response to a unique page in the docs, where they'll see their actual API log. They can see exactly what the server saw and returned, replay the request, and more. If an error code is returned, the API creator can write out what the error means and how to fix it. If that's not enough, they can open a support ticket on ReadMe, and include the logs that seem broken. That way, both sides are looking at the same API logs, and know things like what SDK is being used or if the data is URL encoded properly. Lastly, we're going to build tools that are more proactive. Like, if a customer is getting a certain threshold of errors in production, we'll make it easy to trigger an email to them with a warning.
  - sytse 7y ago
    Nice, that could be really useful. Bringing back hypermedia to programming interfaces.
  - mobee 7y ago
    Guess what's going to be part of the next GitLab release...
forgotmypw 7y ago
FYI, this link I found somewhere redirects to a 404: http://readme.io/home http://readme.io/home
- gkoberger 7y ago
  Fixed, thank you! We think we used that URL when we submitted to HN a few years ago because the root domain had already been submitted: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6397526 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6397526 (I ended up offering to pay for it!)
guscost 7y ago
Hey Greg! I don’t know if you remember, but one time we got I think third place at an RIT hackathon. It was really cool to find out that you were the founder of readme after hearing about it (and asking for the budget to buy it). Congratulations on the Series A!!
gkoberger 7y ago
Also, we're hiring! https://readme.com/careers https://readme.com/careers Engineers, support, solutions engineer, dev evangelist, content writer (with a technical background), and more! If you don't see the right job, email greg@readme.io!
tosh 7y ago
kudos!

choward 7y ago

I've read pretty much everything on the site and between the high level marketing speak and generic wireframes, I have no idea what it does or what problem it actually solves. There's even a link if you hover over about that says "Learn about why we exist". I thought for sure that would have something, but it's just a list of all the employees. It looks like the only way to figure out what it actually does is to sign up. If had come across their site without any context I would have assumed it was a generic marketing site template that needed to be filled in. I'm sorry for being so negative, but I am interested in documentation related technology and it bugs me that I can't for the life of me figure out what this is after seing things posted about it on Hackernews for the last few years.

gkoberger 7y ago
Hey! We do API documentation, plus a bunch of other tools. All the logos are click-able (for example: https://developers.intercom.com/ https://developers.intercom.com/) if you want an example. So, basically, we sit at developer.whatever.com, and take care of everything from reference guides to marketing pages to tutorials to support forums. If you have any more questions or feedback, feel free to email me at greg@readme.io! We're always updating the homepage, so we'll definitely do our best to make it more clear in the future!
- choward 7y ago
  Thanks, I think I understand now. I honestly would have never guessed those were clickable without hovering. All I did was scroll. I didn't move the cursor so I also didn't notice the image change on mouse over.
- guptaneil 7y ago
  Cool product, but +1 on better links. I’d definitely add a big demo button on the homepage. I just wanted to see how the docs look, but flipped through 3 pages and couldn’t find a single real screenshot or link. Finally just went to Trello’s docs myself to see an example. Also, the company logos don’t appear at all on an iPad in portrait mode.
7y ago

bg0 7y ago

[you're right]

bretpiatt 7y ago
$100 is 1/50th of a $5,000 per month employee. From looking at your business from the website in your profile it feels like high quality API docs could speed up many members of the team. It's hard to evaluate situations from the outside so I could also be totally off. At Jungle Disk we consume a ton of tools and they are all easily positive ROI. Good people are hard to find and expensive vs. SaaS subscriptions.
- paggle 7y ago
  Where on God’s green earth do you have a $5,000 per month employee writing API documentation?
  - gkoberger 7y ago
    I'm not sure if your reaction is because it's high or low! WIt's not just writing. ReadMe doesn't write anything for you. You'd have to build the "platform" before anything is actually written. But $5k/mo works out to be a ~$30k salary after taxes.
    - paggle 7y ago
      Because it’s low of course. You actually have $60k employees who can write API docs?

foobaw 7y ago

Big reason why Readme really didn't work for us was because - we wanted one secured internal knowledge base and one external knowledge base but that was not easily supported. Also we needed integration with Zendesk because we wanted to re-direct customers to our KB but that was not easily done.

gkoberger 7y ago
Feel free to reach out to greg@readme.io if you're still interested! You can have multiple projects, and the internal ones can be secured in a variety of ways (OAuth, site-wide password, admins only). As for Zendesk, we have an integration (the little modal popup thingy), or you can disable our support forums and redirect any sub-URL to Zendesk! It still might not be the right fit, however I'd love to talk more if you have feedback or thoughts!