Careers at Instart Logic

Mission

Instart Logic’s mission is to speed, secure, and scale application delivery to companies whose business depends on cloud application performance.

History

Manav Mital was a Software Development Manager at Aster Data, one of the first big data firms. In 2010 he decided to branch out on his own. So he left, taking with him fellow engineers Raghu Venkat and Hariharan Kolam. They spent some time brainstorming and in 2010 founded a company called Instart Logic. It offered a website that enabled gamers to download games and track their scores.

After a few months, the guys realized their idea had limited promise. However, they did not throw in the towel – instead, they took note of another trend. They observed that more and more consumers were moving from desktop and mobile devices to applications. In response, companies were rebuilding their applications from the bottom up to create a smooth experience across devices.

This situation created a challenge – namely, a disruption in the delivery of applications. The guys decided that they would develop a cloud-based solution that would address the issue by delivering websites more quickly and securely. Specificlaly, it would evaluate webpages from an origin server and prioritize which page parts would be broken into smaller parts and sent to end devices.

Once the guys had their prototype, they approached several potential customers about testing it. The users tried it and were very pleased, and the demonstrated interest in the service enabled the team to raise $9 million in Series A funding in 2012. Now most of Instart Logic’s test customers are long-time clients. The company has since acquired a number of firms to enhance its capabilities.

Benefits at Instart Logic

Business model of Instart Logic

Customer Segments

Instart Logic has a niche market business model, with a specialized customer segment. The company targets its offerings at online companies such as Internet retailers and SaaS application publishers.

Value Proposition

Instart Logic offers three primary value propositions: convenience, performance, and brand/status.

The company creates convenience by making its offering easy to use. The solution is an end-to-end platform that enables clients to control resource access, understand the load sequence of web pages, and enable streamed fragments from the Cloud to be visible within the end user’s browser. Further, it automatically adapts to changes in user behavior and network devices and conditions.

The company has demonstrated strong performance through tangible results for customers. High-profile examples of positive outcomes include the following:

  • The Washington Post used Instart Logic’s solution to achieve a 70% decrease in page load times for image-rich pages
  • Commune Hotels used Instart Logic’s solution to improve website load times, resulting in a 90% increase in performance
  • Kongregate used Instart Logic’s solution to achieve a 50% decrease in time-to-play for browser-based video games
  • BookIt.com used Instart Logic’s solution to accelerate web application delivery, resulting in a 40% increase in web performance

The company has established a strong brand due to its performance. It bills itself as the world’s first endpoint-aware application delivery solution. Its clients include many prominent firms, including Office Depot, the Dollar Shave Club, and the Washington Post. Lastly, it has won many honors, including a Golden Bridge award (2013), a “Best Cloud Infrastructure“ award from the Cloud Awards (2015), and placement on lists such as the OnCloud Top 100 and the Red Herring 100 North America.

Channels

Instart Logic’s main channel is its direct sales team. The company promotes its offering through its website, social media pages, and participation in summits, trade shows, and conferences.

Customer Relationships

Instart Logic’s customer relationship is primarily of a personal assistance nature. The company maintains the Instart Logic Global Support Team, which provides customer service 24/7 through phone, e-mail, and online channels. It also maintains a Site Reliability Team that monitors customer traffic and tries to resolve problems before they happen, or address them within 30 minutes.

Despite this orientation, there is a self-service component. The company’s website features a “Resources” section that includes numerous self-help tools, including articles, research reports, white papers, case studies, analyst insights, data sheets, infographics, eBooks, webinars, and videos.

Key Activities

Instart Logic’s business model entails maintaining and updating its cloud platform for customers.

Key Partners

Instart Logic maintains partnerships with service and solution providers focused on web performance, application delivery, and security. Its two main types of alliances are as follows:

  • Referral/Resell Program Partners – The company invites other firms to refer their customers to its solution. Alternatively, they can resell its offerings to their clients, adding to their bottom line.
  • Technology Partners – The company works with hardware, software, and service providers in the areas of performance analytics, mobile, infrastructure, and security. It invites them to integrate their products into its solutions or to use its solutions to provide enhanced offerings to their customers.

Partners are allowed to participate in co-marketing initiatives at industry events. Specific partners include:

·         Amazon Web Services

·         AT&T

·         Catchpoint

·         Cedexis

·         ChinaCache

·         Comcast

·         Compuware

·         Demandware

·         Drupal

·         DynDNS

·         Equinix

·         GlobalSign

·         IBM

·         Magento

·         Marketlive

·         New Relic

·         Neustar

·         Nginx

·         NTT Data

·         Oracle

·         Peer1 Hosting

·         Soasta

·         Shinwoo Total Network System

·         Tata Communications

·         TeliaSonera

·         Telstra

·         Terremark

·         Verisign

·         Wordpress

·         Zerolag

Key Resources

Instart Logic’s main resource is its proprietary software platform.

It depends on its technology employees to maintain and update the platform, its sales staff to promote it, and its customer service staff to provide support.

Lastly, as a relatively new startup it has relied heavily on funding from outside parties, raising $140 million from 10 investors as of January 2016.

Cost Structure

Instart Logic has a value-driven structure, aiming to provide a premium proposition through significant personal service.

Its biggest cost driver is likely sales/marketing, a fixed cost. Other major drivers are in the areas of customer support/operations and product development, both fixed costs.

Revenue Streams

Instart Logic has one revenue stream: the subscription fees it charges for access to its software-as-a-service platform. Sales staff must be contacted directly for fee amounts.

Our team

Manav Ratan Mital,
Co-Founder and CEO

info: Manav earned a B.S. in Computer Science from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. He previously served as Software Development Manager at Aster Data and as a Software Engineer at Yahoo!, where he built systems to improve search rankings.

Hariharan Kolam,
Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer

info: Hariharan earned a B.S. in Computer Science from NIT Nagpur, India and an M.S. in Computer Science from Stony Brook University. He previously worked at Aster Data and in the Solaris Cluster group at Sun Microsystems.

Raghu Venkat,
Co-Founder and CPO

info: Raghu earned a B.S. in Information Technology at the Indian Institute of Technology and a Master’s in Computer Science at Stanford University. He previously served as a Software Engineer at Google and Motorola and as an engineer at Aster Data.

Rafael Torres,
Chief Financial Officer

info: Rafael earned a B.S. in Accounting from Santa Clara University. He previously served as CFO of OCZ Storage Solutions, a Toshiba Group company. He has also held senior leadership roles at Power Integrations, Capella Photonics, and PLX Technology.