We've raised a $5.6M Series A from Union Square Ventures and Flybridge

https://www.firebase.com/blog/2013-06-20-firebase-series-a.html

by _pius • 13 years ago

170 64 13 years ago

firebase.com

anandkulkarni• 13 years ago

Thrilled to have watched this product and this team grow to this phase. This technology still amazes me.

Keep on killing it, guys!

rmorrison• 13 years ago

Congrats!

rmanalan• 13 years ago

Awesome job guys! Congrats!

dakrisht2• 13 years ago

Congrats guys, haven't heard of your platform before, definitely trying your real-time chat API shortly.

Looking into how your product compares with Parse...

gailees5• 13 years ago

Parse + Firebase == Unstoppable

dakrisht2• 13 years ago

Wow what a combo.

Kiro2• 13 years ago

How would that work?

prayag• 13 years ago

These guys, they are amazing entrepreneurs. I don't say that lightly. Read about James and Andrew story in Haiti here http://darineich.com/startups-beanbags-earthquakes-and-fires...

loceng5• 13 years ago

Sounds like a good match with USV.

dirkk0• 13 years ago

Thanks for the link, I didn't know about this story - I just received an email from James and now I feel even more honored. I am doing quite a lot with Firebase these days and this makes me want to use it even more.

Come to think of it, this surprises me.

dataisfun• 13 years ago

Way to make me feel stupid for missing the seed :)

yesimahuman• 13 years ago

Congrats guys, that's a lot of cash!

X4• 13 years ago

Firebase tried it so hard. Had opensource competitors and they still succeeded. Let this be a lesson to everyone else.

To a firebase hater, I know someone indirectly, whose product you bought and silenced. No good move, sir.

mathattack• 13 years ago

"Albert was the only investor we pitched who immediately made a Firebase app"

Now that's kind of cool for a VC!

pg• 13 years ago

He's one of a tiny minority of VC partners who actually write code. His site is http://continuations.com.

gailees5• 13 years ago

VCs code!?

fizx• 13 years ago

Also, https://github.com/spullara

comatose_kid• 13 years ago

Greg McAdoo (Sequoia) http://www.appdata.com/ios_apps/devs/148071-greg-mcadoo

tptacek2• 13 years ago

Trivia: Chip Hazard is also one of the VC "bad guys" in Phil Greenspun's writing about the downfall of Ars Digita:

http://waxy.org/random/arsdigita/

Edit: I have no idea if that actually means something; it's just a name I remember from Greenspun's writing.

rdouble2• 13 years ago

I'd take that article with a grain of salt. There's much omitted from that account and it happened 12 years ago.

larrys4• 13 years ago

What's your take on this? From the fact that you are pointing this out would you say he hasn't changed his spots? (I know nothing about him which is why I am asking..)

tptacek2• 13 years ago

No idea at all. Edited the comment to make that clearer. I have zero professional exposure to any of these people.

programminggeek2• 13 years ago

Chip Hazard is a great name, like something out of a 90's PC game, like Duke Nukem or something.

thirit• 13 years ago

It appears in the movie Small Soldiers - http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0015025/

larrys4• 13 years ago

Another one I like is "John Hummer" from Hummer Winblad.

A memorable name can be an important asset. It can be a branding if it makes a strong positive impression. Of course like anything lacking one can be overcome once you gain a reputation. [1]

I know someone whose last name is "Bogus" believe me nobody ever forgets that name.

[1] Fred Wilson, Paul Graham

larrys4• 13 years ago

Nice marketing on their web site.

(Need to update the investor page though, currently not showing USV./)

https://www.firebase.com/about.html

anant• 13 years ago

Fixed :) https://www.firebase.com/about.html

ozgune• 13 years ago

I love what these guys are doing and their technology. Congrats guys!

guiseppecalzone• 13 years ago

This is an incredible team.

The reason why I love seeing this is because these guys fall squarely in the category of work hard, iterate for years and get rewarded. This wasn't an overnight success. Rather, it's the result of an extremely smart team committed to making something great. I'm really excited to see what they come up with over the next few years.

gailees5• 13 years ago

Hell yeah :)

gailees5• 13 years ago

Loving the iOS SDK. That's 100% the way to go. Parse for real-time apps.

gailees5• 13 years ago

Backends are a thing of the past.

brandonb• 13 years ago

The Firebase team is amazing, congrats to them!

atjoslin• 13 years ago

Yay! Just started using Firebase on a new project of mine a couple weeks ago, and loving it. I'm glad to see it's certain to be lasting :-)

d0m• 13 years ago

Yep, very happy for you guys. If I wasn't working on my own stuff, Firebase would clearly be the very first startup I'd apply to work with.

programminggeek2• 13 years ago

I find it amazing that a company can get over $5 million without yet charging for their product. But then again, they kind of just did get people to pay for their product, just not customers/end users...

beat2• 13 years ago

The investors clearly see a payoff down the road. It happens, you know.

loceng5• 13 years ago

And these investors are pretty good at seeing where things are going, understanding their value - and then supporting them to get there.

acjohnson552• 13 years ago

Are people mostly developing full sites on Firebase, or just mini-apps?

Kiro2• 13 years ago

I love Firebase but I don't see how I could build a serious web app without server-side logic. How do you for example handle validation?

mikelehen• 13 years ago

We let you define server-side logic (for security and validation specifically) using our Security Rules API: https://www.firebase.com/docs/security/security-rules.html

pewallin• 13 years ago

Node.js and Firebase work very well together.

lancewiggs• 13 years ago

I'm interested in the pricing decision. How big is the market for apps that are popular but free or unable to support the higher prices? I wonder if any thought went into a plan for them?

benologist• 13 years ago

They have a free plan, the onus is on you to stay within those limits or upgrade.

friendstock• 13 years ago

Congratulations James and Andrew, from a long-time user of Envolve (the precursor to Firebase).

badclient• 13 years ago

I like this investment a lot more than andreessen horowitz' Meteor investment.

imslavko• 13 years ago

Well, why?

michaeldwan• 13 years ago

This is great news. I think we've only seen the beginning of what these guys are building.

nateps• 13 years ago

Congrats! Glad to see you ended up with such excellent investors, and will be looking forward to continued improvements in Firebase! Looking forward to more progress making all web apps realtime.

apapli• 13 years ago

Congratulations team!

Question for readers - how does an individual get to become an investor in these sorts of rounds? I note Union Square led this round, but there's no place for me to register my interest in funding similar projects on their web site (nor most other VCs from what I can tell).

Is it a case of hanging out with the right people and have $1m plus to burn (which I don't) or is there another way?

rdouble2• 13 years ago

Mostly being an accredited investor and hobnobbing with the right people

rusyasoft• 13 years ago

How about backend of Firebase? Can you guys tell something about it ? (Just Curious :)))

jhchrist• 13 years ago

I heard that Flybridge was unable to raise money for another fund and that they're "on fumes."

We've raised a $5.6M Series A from Union Square Ventures and Flybridge

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