4 ms·

Wow, jesus, $6.5B [1] for an API client? 2021 really was a fever dream for VC, huh. [1] https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/18/api-platform-postman-valued-at-5-6-bi

by ketzo 4y ago

Wow, jesus, $6.5B [1] for an API client? 2021 really was a fever dream for VC, huh. [1] https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/18/api-platform-postman-valued-at-5-6-billion-in-225-million-fundraise/ https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/18/api-platform-postman-value...

whatever1 4y ago
It’s a very good one though. It just removes a lot of friction that alternatives impose to you.
- dboreham 4y ago
  grpcurl enters the room
  - deeptote 4y ago
    grpcurl and httpie are so good it's ridiculous.
- paxys 4y ago
  What friction does curl impose? I get that a CLI command isn't suitable for everyone, but (1) we are talking about a developer audience and (2) there should NOT be a $5.6 billion valuation gap between the two tools.
  - whatever1 4y ago
    Have you heard about Docusign ?
  - that_guy_iain 4y ago
    All seriousness. Curl should be a billion dollar piece of software. It's so widely used, I suspect half of the apps I use on a daily basis would probably stop working if Curl was removed.
    - imran-iq 4y ago
      No kidding look at this list: https://curl.se/docs/companies.html https://curl.se/docs/companies.html
      - sgerenser 4y ago
        Not only that, the author has to deal with angry e-mails from people who are unhappy with their Toyota Corolla: https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2016/11/14/i-have-toyota-corola/ https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2016/11/14/i-have-toyota-corola/
    - meowmeowmoo 4y ago
      Compensation for FOSS engineers is so broken. So much economic value gets created and rarely any of it is captured by the creators. It’s infuriating.
  - squeaky-clean 4y ago
    The way Postman is moving hasn't struck me as a developer audience anymore. At my last job we heavily used it for the QA and support teams. Most devs used the vscode extension that does mostly the same things without all the cloud-sharing junk.
that_guy_iain 4y ago
It's useful. But the pro features didn't really stand out that much. I worked at one company that shelled out for pro and then went back because really the pro features weren't that much use.
- ApolloFortyNine 4y ago
  Well more than anything, 90% of the use cases are people using it as essentially a GUI CURL. There's countless open source alternatives [1] [2]. They can't ever charge too much money because the space isn't exactly hard to enter. [1] https://github.com/Kong/insomnia https://github.com/Kong/insomnia [2] https://github.com/flawiddsouza/Restfox https://github.com/flawiddsouza/Restfox
Mandatum 4y ago
They do other things. They just don’t do them well enough for adoption.
satvikpendem 4y ago
VC was cheap after '08 with quantitative easing. Maybe they thought, hey, cheap capital.
gen220 4y ago
Might I introduce you to Calendly[1], a $3bn meeting-scheduling app, that employs >500 people. Personally, I see these kinds of things as a failing of the US's macroeconomic policy since 2010 first (ZIRP), and the failing of the board and VCs second, before dicing up the blame amongst c-suite and executives. The incentive structures start from the top. [1]: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/calendly https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/calendly
- ketzo 4y ago
  Honestly, even Calendly makes more sense to me. Massive addressable market, pretty mediocre state of the art, problem that people already spend real money to solve (poorly). $3B is high, but I can see a world where it’s justified. Employee count seems high but I would imagine a disproportionate number are sales/marketing because, again, addressable market is huge and competition is fierce. Postman… the addressable market is just not that large, especially for the features you actually pay for.
  - gen220 4y ago
    Apparently it's 155 engineers (if LI data is to be believed), and about an equal amount of Sales employees [0]. There's definitely value in the space, but I struggle to imagine how the ends (capturing that value) justifies the means (how they're pursuing that value). If you know your way around CalDAV [1], you can build the most valuable 20% of their features in a weekend. A team of 3-4 could build the most valuable 80% in a month or two. In fact, some people have not only done that but kept going, and we have FOSS tools like https://cal.com https://cal.com as a result, that are arguably easier to use. As a board member/founder/executive, one has to in the mirror each night, and feel confident saying "I'm running this company responsibly". Especially if you're working in a purely digital space (which Calendly is), you have to bend really far to justify hiring that many people. IDK, maybe I'm a standard deviation or two away from norms on frugality, but this baffles me. [0]: To contrast, WhatsApp sold in (!) 2014 (!) with 32 engineers (~50 total heacount), servicing 450mm active users. So, Calendly have 10x the headcount, on .2x the valuation. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CalDAV https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CalDAV
- 4y ago
WeylandYutani 4y ago
See you in 15 years when the next boom cycle starts.

by ketzo 4y ago

whatever1 4y ago

It’s a very good one though. It just removes a lot of friction that alternatives impose to you.

dboreham 4y ago
grpcurl enters the room
- deeptote 4y ago
  grpcurl and httpie are so good it's ridiculous.
paxys 4y ago
What friction does curl impose? I get that a CLI command isn't suitable for everyone, but (1) we are talking about a developer audience and (2) there should NOT be a $5.6 billion valuation gap between the two tools.
- whatever1 4y ago
  Have you heard about Docusign ?
- that_guy_iain 4y ago
  All seriousness. Curl should be a billion dollar piece of software. It's so widely used, I suspect half of the apps I use on a daily basis would probably stop working if Curl was removed.
  - imran-iq 4y ago
    No kidding look at this list: https://curl.se/docs/companies.html https://curl.se/docs/companies.html
    - sgerenser 4y ago
      Not only that, the author has to deal with angry e-mails from people who are unhappy with their Toyota Corolla: https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2016/11/14/i-have-toyota-corola/ https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2016/11/14/i-have-toyota-corola/
  - meowmeowmoo 4y ago
    Compensation for FOSS engineers is so broken. So much economic value gets created and rarely any of it is captured by the creators. It’s infuriating.
- squeaky-clean 4y ago
  The way Postman is moving hasn't struck me as a developer audience anymore. At my last job we heavily used it for the QA and support teams. Most devs used the vscode extension that does mostly the same things without all the cloud-sharing junk.

that_guy_iain 4y ago

It's useful. But the pro features didn't really stand out that much. I worked at one company that shelled out for pro and then went back because really the pro features weren't that much use.

ApolloFortyNine 4y ago
Well more than anything, 90% of the use cases are people using it as essentially a GUI CURL. There's countless open source alternatives [1] [2]. They can't ever charge too much money because the space isn't exactly hard to enter. [1] https://github.com/Kong/insomnia https://github.com/Kong/insomnia [2] https://github.com/flawiddsouza/Restfox https://github.com/flawiddsouza/Restfox

Mandatum 4y ago

They do other things. They just don’t do them well enough for adoption.

satvikpendem 4y ago

VC was cheap after '08 with quantitative easing. Maybe they thought, hey, cheap capital.

gen220 4y ago

Might I introduce you to Calendly[1], a $3bn meeting-scheduling app, that employs >500 people. Personally, I see these kinds of things as a failing of the US's macroeconomic policy since 2010 first (ZIRP), and the failing of the board and VCs second, before dicing up the blame amongst c-suite and executives. The incentive structures start from the top. [1]: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/calendly https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/calendly

ketzo 4y ago
Honestly, even Calendly makes more sense to me. Massive addressable market, pretty mediocre state of the art, problem that people already spend real money to solve (poorly). $3B is high, but I can see a world where it’s justified. Employee count seems high but I would imagine a disproportionate number are sales/marketing because, again, addressable market is huge and competition is fierce. Postman… the addressable market is just not that large, especially for the features you actually pay for.
- gen220 4y ago
  Apparently it's 155 engineers (if LI data is to be believed), and about an equal amount of Sales employees [0]. There's definitely value in the space, but I struggle to imagine how the ends (capturing that value) justifies the means (how they're pursuing that value). If you know your way around CalDAV [1], you can build the most valuable 20% of their features in a weekend. A team of 3-4 could build the most valuable 80% in a month or two. In fact, some people have not only done that but kept going, and we have FOSS tools like https://cal.com https://cal.com as a result, that are arguably easier to use. As a board member/founder/executive, one has to in the mirror each night, and feel confident saying "I'm running this company responsibly". Especially if you're working in a purely digital space (which Calendly is), you have to bend really far to justify hiring that many people. IDK, maybe I'm a standard deviation or two away from norms on frugality, but this baffles me. [0]: To contrast, WhatsApp sold in (!) 2014 (!) with 32 engineers (~50 total heacount), servicing 450mm active users. So, Calendly have 10x the headcount, on .2x the valuation. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CalDAV https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CalDAV
4y ago

WeylandYutani 4y ago

See you in 15 years when the next boom cycle starts.