档案库 · 开发与企业工具 · 财务决策 · 2012–2016
Sentry，开源崩溃报告工具，获NEA和Accel 900万美元A轮融资
Sentry把Disqus的内部错误记录器变成了开源崩溃报告产品，然后在2016年由NEA领投了900万美元的A轮融资。
Sentry
做的是什么生意
Sentry sells real-time crash and error reporting for web, mobile and games: an open-source project plus a hosted SaaS priced by exceptions thrown, used by engineers at Square, Stripe, Dropbox, Opera, Uber, Airbnb and Postmates.
启动资金：$1.5M seed from Accel in 2015, which grew the team from three to fourteen; then a $9M Series A led by NEA with Accel participating in June 2016, at a $40M+ post-money valuation, earmarked for growth and hiring.
起因
Chris Jennings and David Cramer built Sentry as an internal tool for exception logging in Django applications while working at Disqus, which ran a blog-comment hosting service. Disqus open-sourced it, dozens of developers contributed code, and it grew to support Python, PHP, Java, Ruby, Node.js and JavaScript, with users including Twitter, Rdio, Pinterest, Path, Mozilla and Disqus itself. The open-source version was well received, but the team kept fielding requests for a hosted service, so the founders left their day jobs and launched one in 2012 with tiered pricing based on how many exceptions an application throws.
经过
The hosted product became cash-flow positive and, by June 2016, had more than 5,000 customers, about one-third of everyone using Sentry including the open-source version. Accel provided $1.5M in seed funding in 2015, and the team grew from three to fourteen, hiring from Dropbox, GitHub and Disqus, including Cameron McEfee, previously GitHub's creative director. JavaScript became Sentry's top platform after more than tripling in a year, and the company said it was about to launch best-in-class iOS support with Unity coverage to follow. On June 23, 2016 it announced a $9M Series A led by NEA with Accel participating; co-founder David Cramer explained the decision: 'There's a lot of similar companies in the space. The sheer amount of competition forced us down the VC route.' Pricing was being overhauled to a team-based model, and the roadmap extended beyond crash reporting with the Breadcrumbs feature (the trail of user events before an error) and a User Feedback feature that would tie 500-error pages to Zendesk.
还没有结局，它还在跑。
背景
Sentry最初是Disqus设计总监Chris Jennings和首席工程师David Cramer构建的内部Django应用异常记录工具。Disqus开源了它，数十名开发者贡献代码，它传遍了Python、PHP、Java、Ruby、Node.js和JavaScript，Twitter、Rdio、Pinterest、Path、Mozilla和Disqus本身都在使用。因为开源版本不断引来托管服务请求，创始人离开Disqus，于2012年推出了托管服务，按应用抛出的异常数分档定价。
托管产品实现了正向现金流，到2016年6月已有超过5000个客户，约占所有使用Sentry（包括开源版）用户的三分之一。Accel在2015年投了150万美元种子资金，团队从三人增至十四人，从Dropbox、GitHub和Disqus招人，包括GitHub前创意总监Cameron McEfee。JavaScript在一年内增长了两倍多，成为Sentry最大的平台，公司正在准备推出所谓的“一流”iOS支持，随后还将加入Unity支持。
2016年6月23日，Sentry宣布完成由NEA领投、Accel参与的900万美元A轮融资，投后估值超过4000万美元。联合创始人David Cramer说：“大量的竞争迫使我们走风投路线。”资金将用于增长和招聘，定价转向基于团队的模式，路线图延伸到崩溃报告之外：Breadcrumbs重建错误前的用户事件，而计划集成Zendesk的用户反馈功能将把500错误页变成支持渠道。Cramer说：“我们已经解决了崩溃报告问题。”
这件事要成立，得有什么
- 开源是切入点：团队可以自己运行Sentry并审视代码，因此通过Disqus、Twitter、Pinterest和Mozilla传播开去，托管服务成为自然的付费升级。
- 按异常次数为托管产品定价，使成本与实际使用挂钩，公司未获风投前就已实现正向现金流。
- 横向扩展到语言和平台——服务器端、浏览器JavaScript、嵌入式、之后iOS和Unity——不断叠加采用；仅JavaScript一年就增长了两倍。
- 创始人将融资原因归为竞争，而非增长：面对众多类似公司，正向现金流不足以保证胜出，因此Sentry接受风投以加快招聘和发展。
- 下一个赌注是相邻领域：随着崩溃报告问题“解决”，Sentry通过Breadcrumbs、用户反馈和Zendesk集成瞄准客户支持和产品开发的其他环节。
可借鉴之处
开源让Sentry免费进入大型工程团队；托管升级将这种影响力转化为现金流，而拥挤的市场最终促使它融资并进行扩张。
后续进展
截至2016年6月23日，Sentry处于扩张阶段：托管客户超过5000个，团队约十四人，刚完成NEA和Accel投资的900万美元A轮融资，投后估值超过4000万美元。资金计划用于快速增长和招聘；宣布的路线图包括转向基于团队的定价、iOS和Unity支持、Breadcrumbs事件轨迹功能（据公司博客2016年5月已上线）以及将500错误页与Zendesk关联的用户反馈功能。Cramer将此轮融资定位为超越崩溃报告、进入与产品开发紧密耦合的其他垂直领域的起点。
资料来源
- Real-time crash reporting tool Sentry grabs $9 million from NEA & Accel
- Hacker News discussion of Sentry's $9M round
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