Peteris Krumins: How I went to Silicon Valley and raised $55,000 for Browserling

http://www.catonmat.net/blog/how-i-raised-money-for-browserling/

by noas • 15 years ago

132 52 15 years ago

catonmat.net

mcantelon• 15 years ago

Congrats... nice to see some real hackers get a leg up!

pkrumins20• 15 years ago

Thank you!

west• 15 years ago

Nice work! A "check on the spot" definitely helps validate the idea.

pkrumins20• 15 years ago

It sure does!

lanstein• 15 years ago

I'm sorry I was unable to recruit you to Splunk back in the day, but good luck with Browserling!

pkrumins20• 15 years ago

Thanks. :)

scottkrager• 15 years ago

"Success, I was known in the Silicon Valley!"

Good read. You can feel the passion jumping out of the post.

pkrumins20• 15 years ago

Awww yeah!

cal5k• 15 years ago

Are you a US citizen, or did you have to sort out work visas to make it happen?

pkrumins20• 15 years ago

Went on a B1 visa "to raise investment for StackVM", which took 15 minutes to get.

loevborg2• 15 years ago

As a fellow EU citizen, I'm interested in this. Could you elaborate? Are you able to found or work at a start up in the U.S. with only a temporary visa?

endijs• 15 years ago

Congrats Peteris! Prieks, ka kādam izdodas! Veiksmes! :)

pkrumins20• 15 years ago

Paldies! :)

orky56• 15 years ago

Congrats! Adam Rifkin can really make things happen. Definitely worth meeting and knowing him.

pkrumins20• 15 years ago

<3 Adam Rifkin

david927• 15 years ago

I knew of each of you separately and have long thought you are brilliant. (How YC passed on you I'll never know.)

I'm really happy to hear you're funded and going. Best of luck!

pkrumins20• 15 years ago

Thank you sir!

derwiki• 15 years ago

Miss for YC, big win for the Hackers and Founders incubator. Browserling was the start up I was most excited about on Not-a-Demo Day, in part because all of their business cards were hand drawn and ripped from sheets of paper and their browser logo cutouts were made from cereal boxes.

pkrumins20• 15 years ago

<3 Jonathan and Laura

dshankar• 15 years ago

If I had money, I'd invest in you guys. Congrats on the funding!

pkrumins20• 15 years ago

You better save some up for when we raise the next round! :)

changelog• 15 years ago

His co-founder is SubStack, the same guy from yesterdays Browserify article: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2805195

pkrumins20• 15 years ago

SubStack is the best hacker I know.

rook2pawn• 15 years ago

his reach is beyond imagination.. dnode, hook.io, nowjs.

testling is going to take browserling to the next level!

bprater2• 15 years ago

Check out their startup: http://browserling.com/

It allows you to not just get a screenshot of the site you are working on in a variety of browsers, but you can actually navigate the site, click on links, enter text, etc. Impressive!

For designers/developers who need big coverage on browsers, I suspect they are going to do strong business.

I think the $20 pricing might be a bit high, but the 5 minutes free should help a bunch of folks.

pkrumins20• 15 years ago

Yeah, the browsers run on Windowses and we stream the desktop to the browser!

$20 also gets you tunnels, so you can tunnel localhost or local network to Browserling. Not available in the free plans!

bprater2• 15 years ago

OOh. That's sweet. You need, need, need to make that clear. Being able to local dev and then share that with clients or customers is pretty huge.

Keep testing your pricing model. Don't get locked in this early. I suspect that $15 might be the price point where it's a no-brainer for a certain group of dev/designers.

e1ven• 15 years ago

What are you using for the streaming?

rayboyd• 15 years ago

Great story and best of luck to you guys going forward. This is a very useful tool. I find myself using it more and more lately when I need a quick test spin in the explorers.

pkrumins20• 15 years ago

Awesome that you like it!

aashay• 15 years ago

Browserling is some seriously impressive work. Congrats and thank you for all the Node.JS open-source work too!

pkrumins20• 15 years ago

You're welcome!

dayjah• 15 years ago

I see tunnels as a key feature, but you know this - I've been talking about tunnels on browserling for ages :) Glad you raised money and very happy that the H&F family made it happen for you.

Looking forward to you being back in the Bay Area.

pkrumins20• 15 years ago

I'll announce tunnels in my next blog post! They are already live (the ssh icon on the right, when you use Browserling) but I haven't announced them anywhere, so almost no one knows about them!

See you soon in the Bay Area!

jackfoxy• 15 years ago

Congrats Peteris and James! I've had a lot of fun watching the progress of Browserling through interacting with it. And congrats to Jonathan and Laura too!

pkrumins20• 15 years ago

Jonathan and Laura took us to dinners when we were almost out of money and hungry! They are truly the kindest people I have ever met.

massarog• 15 years ago

I really love your service, however, I'm not a fan of the design (seems cartoonish). Was this just the design aspect you were going for or are you seeking a redesign in the near future?

pkrumins20• 15 years ago

We like the design! We're not looking for a redesign.

dweekly• 15 years ago

These guys were literally the perfect example of the mythical "starving entrepreneurs" who walk into your office with a brilliant idea. I had to make sure they could eat! :)

daniel-cussen• 15 years ago

The treehouse in the bg is a nice touch.

bluehat• 15 years ago

Good job guys, and remember, if you're ever hungry, come back to Treehouse for a meal. -Katy

Peteris Krumins: How I went to Silicon Valley and raised $55,000 for Browserling

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