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Tag: unicorn company

  • BrowserStack – Success Story of The World’s Best Cloud Based Testing Platform

    Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by BrowserStack.

    Every aspect of human life, in one way or the other, is affected by Apps and Websites. They’ve become an integral part of our day-to-day life. As a result, the growth of the App and Website industry is reaching new heights every year. With the creation of the first website in August 1991, the industry has gone through massive growth. There are approximately 1.88 Billion Websites and 5.2 Million Apps on Google Play and the Apple store, as of September 2021. Around 2,50,000 websites and 3500 apps are born daily.

    Apart from developing apps and websites, the developers have another crucial role to play. To reach a wider audience, they have to ensure that their software functions effectively on various platforms, browsers and devices. Assuring the quality requires the software to be tested on each and every platform, which is a time-consuming and unachievable process for developers. This is where BrowserStack comes into play.

    BrowserStack helps the developers to test their apps and websites on multiple devices, browsers, and OS to ensure their functionality. It is an Indian Company established in 2011. BrowserStack’s customers include Microsoft, Twitter, Expedia and many more. It has turned out to be the leading software testing platform in the world.

    BrowserStack – Highlights

    Company Name BrowserStack
    Headquarters Mumbai, India
    Sector Enterprise Software, Web Development
    Founder Ritesh Arora, Nakul Aggarwal
    Founded 2011
    Valuation $4 Billion
    Total Funding Raised $250 Million
    Website BrowserStack.com

    BrowserStack – About
    BrowserStack – Latest News
    BrowserStack – Founders
    BrowserStack – Startup Story
    BrowserStack – Mission and Vision
    BrowserStack – Business Model
    BrowserStack – Revenue Model
    BrowserStack – Products and Services
    BrowserStack – Funding and Investors
    BrowserStack – Acquisitions
    BrowserStack – Growth
    BrowserStack – Partnership
    BrowserStack – Awards and Achievements
    BrowserStack – Competitors
    BrowserStack – Future Plans
    BrowserStack – FAQs

    Success story of BrowserStack by Ritesh Arora – Co-founder of BrowserStack

    BrowserStack – About

    BrowserStack is a SaaS platform that provides cloud-based mobile and web testing services. It helps the developers to deliver a quality service by testing their software on numerous devices, operating systems, and browsers. The company holds five primary products to test software for Quality Assurance (QA) namely, Live, Automate, and Percy for testing websites, App Live and App Automate for testing mobile apps.

    BrowserStack is a Mumbai-based company founded by Ritesh Arora and Nakul Aggarwal in 2011. The company has its global offices in Mumbai, Dublin, San Francisco, and New York. With more than 25,000 paid customers and 750 employees across the world, BrowserStack became a Unicorn valued at $4 billion in 2021. The company swanks itself as the world’s leading software testing platform.

    BrowserStack – Latest News

    September 28, 2021 – $50 Million worth of Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOP) was bought back from its employees by BrowserStack for the second time. This Buy-back exercise was carried out to help employees financially and more than 100 employees participated in it.

    August 10, 2021 – Forbes 2021 Cloud 100 named BrowserStack to its list of top 100 private cloud companies in the world. The judging panel for this ranking consisted of 34 CEOs from public cloud companies.

    BrowserStack – Founders

    Ritesh Arora and Nakul Aggarwal - BrowserStack Founders
    Ritesh Arora and Nakul Aggarwal – BrowserStack Founders

    Ritesh Arora and Nakul Aggarwal are the co-founders of BrowserStack. Ritesh Arora also serves as the CEO and Nakul Aggarwal as the CTO (Chief Technology Officer) of the company. They are ‘Serial Entrepreneurs’ who co-founded QuarkRank, QuarkBase, and Downcase (all were tech companies) before BrowserStack. Arora and Aggarwal, both were good friends and graduates in Computer Science from IIT Bombay.

    BrowserStack – Startup Story

    BrowserStack Logo
    BrowserStack Logo

    BrowserStack was created as a result of difficulties faced by the founders while creating Downcase, a cloud computing and consulting company. The founders faced an inability to run the test for their newly built website across various browsers and devices. The lack of resources got them frustrated. This forced Arora and Aggarwal to build a testing platform on their own, which resulted in BrowserStack.

    Ritesh Arora and Nakul Aggarwal founded BrowserStack in 2011 at a coffee shop in Mumbai. Today, 10 years later, the company is valued at $4 Billion and provides its service in more than 135 countries.

    BrowserStack – Mission and Vision

    “To empower developers to build amazing experiences” is the mission with which BrowserStack is functioning. The company wanted to build easy, quick and quality software testing tools. This in turn ensures Developers and Quality Assurance teams offer a flawless experience to billions of users. BrowserStack is also sticking towards its vision of “Becoming the testing Infrastructure of the Internet”. With the growing customers and services, the company has already started leading the software testing industry.

    BrowserStack – Business Model

    BrowserStack provides a cloud platform that offers cross-browser testing services to its users. Web/App designers and developers can use the platform to assess the quality and functionality of their software.

    BrowserStack runs the software through multiple combinations of devices and browsers to test for bugs if any, that cause malfunctions or glitches. They have 5 products for the users to choose from to perform the testing. BrowserStack ensures that the developers deliver a web/app, which gives a seamless experience to the end-users.

    BrowserStack – Revenue Model

    BrowserStack generates revenue through its subscription plans. The company also additionally made ₹44 Lakhs through interests and ₹77 lakhs through foreign exchange fluctuations in the financial year 2020.

    The five products offered by BrowserStack have a separate pricing plan for each of them. But all the products come at a discount of 25% if purchased annually. There’s also a free trial available for users with limited features. Here are its plans and prices:

    Live

    • Desktop – $39/month
    • Desktop & Mobile – $49/month
    • Team – $150/month (5 users)
    • Enterprise Team – Custom

    Automate

    • Desktop – $169/month
    • Desktop & Mobile – $249/month
    • Enterprise – Custom

    App Live

    • Individual – $39/month
    • Team – $30/month
    • Enterprise Team – Custom

    App Automate

    • App Automate – $249/month
    • Enterprise – Custom

    Percy

    • Free – $0/month
    • Professional – $129/month
    • Enterprise – Custom

    BrowserStack – Products and Services

    BrowserStack performs testing of apps and websites through five primary tools. Here are their brief descriptions:

    Live – It helps test cross browsers on mobiles and desktops. Any bugs detected can be eradicated in real-time using their pre-installed developer tools. ‘Live’ helps you to test in more than 3000 desktop browsers.

    Automate – Automate helps to run tests quickly and parallelly in both cloud devices and real browsers. Scaling can be done using a Selenium grid which gives flexibility, and at the same time, maintains the stability of your tests.

    Percy – Percy looks for visual bugs and performs tests that give a pixel-perfect user interface (UI). The Visual Testing can be automated and the running of tests is done real-quick in Percy.

    App Live – This is an exclusive cloud tool for Android and iOS devices. Similar to ‘Live’, App Live also comes with real-time debugging and running tests on development environments. You can also scroll, swipe and interact using many hand gestures while testing, just like you would do in any mobile.

    App Automate – App Automate allows you to run tests simultaneously on thousands of devices. This reduces the time for testing and helps to identify and fix the bugs swiftly. It also makes the integration with BrowserStack easy.

    BrowserStack – Funding and Investors

    Three Investors invested a sum of $250 Million in BrowserStack through 2 rounds. The 2nd round of funding made BrowserStack a Unicorn Company valued at $4 Billion. It was the 15th company in India to become a Unicorn in 2021.

    Date Funding Round Amount Investors Name
    June 16, 2021 Series B $200 Million Bond, Accel and Insight Partners
    January 30, 2018 Series A $50 Million Accel

    BrowserStack – Acquisitions

    BrowserStack Acquisition
    BrowserStack Acquisition

    BrowserStack acquired Percy, a visual review and testing platform based in San Francisco, on 9th July 2020 for an undisclosed price. This was the only acquisition made by BrowserStack so far.

    BrowserStack – Growth

    Born out of a coffee shop in Mumbai in 2011, BrowserStack has achieved a humongous growth in a decade. Profits started flowing in right from day 1 and the founders managed to run BrowserStack without any fundings. It took nearly 7 years for the company to reach a revenue of $20 Million whereas, it surpassed $100 Million in the next couple of years.

    The first milestone for 1000 paid customers was achieved within 6 months of commencing business. They slowly started enhancing their service by adding tools like ‘Automate’ and partnering with Microsoft. The mobile testing service for Android and iOS was launched in 2015. By 2016, BrowserStack started expanding its business by establishing offices in San Francisco and Dublin. The company also had constructed 15 Global Data Centres so far, widening its operational reach around the world.

    BrowserStack – Partnership

    Zuci Systems

    BrowserStack, has partnered with Zuci Systems, a digital consulting and solutions company, in a strategic alliance on August 8,2023.

    BrowserStack – Awards and Achievements

    BrowserStack was named twice as one of the top 100 private cloud companies by Forbes. Here are some of the BrowserStack achhievements:

    • Forbes 2018 Cloud 100 and Forbes 2021 Cloud 100 included BrowserStack in their definitive list.
    • Economic Times Startup Awards recognized BrowserStack as the Bootstrap Champ in the year 2015.
    • G2 has recognized BrowserStack as the Leader in the Test Automation Software category for the year 2021.
    • LinkedIn has awarded BrowserStack as one of the 25 most attractive startups in India in 2018.

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    BrowserStack – Competitors

    BrowserStack Competitors
    BrowserStack Competitors

    BrowserStack has few competitors who are better in terms of stability, support, and meeting the needs of customers. Here are some of the top competitors of BrowserStack.

    • Sauce Labs
    • TestComplete
    • LambdaTest
    • Browserling
    • RobusTest

    BrowserStack – Future Plans

    BrowserStack is expected to double its employee count in the upcoming years. The company is also planning to increase its onboard global talent pool in the future. As the first step to it, BrowserStack transformed itself into a Remote-First company on September 14, 2021. This eliminates geographical limits and enables employees to work from any part of the world.

    BrowserStack – FAQs

    What is BrowserStack?

    BrowserStack is a SaaS platform that provides cloud-based mobile and web testing services for developers.

    Is BrowserStack an Indian Company?

    It is an Indian company with 4 global offices located in Mumbai, San Francisco, Dublin, and New York.

    Who are the founders of BrowserStack?

    Ritesh Arora and Nakul Aggarwal are the BrowserStack’s founders.

    In how many other countries does BrowserStack provides their service?

    BrowserStack is offering services in more than 135 countries with 15 global data centres.

    Who are the top Competitors of BrowserStack?

    Some of the top competitors of BrowserStack are:

    • Sauce Labs
    • TestComplete
    • LambdaTest
    • Browserling
    • RobusTest

  • What Makes A Unicorn Startup & How To Build One

    People know about popular unicorn companies like Uber, Swiggy, Airbnb, Snapchat, and Pinterest and their journey to success, but most people don’t know what a unicorn company exactly means. What are the different criteria for a startup company to become a unicorn? A unicorn in the Business world indicates a privately owned startup company that has a valuation of $1 billion.

    The term was initially coined by a well-known venture capitalist Aileen Lee, who choose the mythical animal to represent the statistical rarity of successful startup companies. The simplest definition of a startup has remained unchanged ever since, while the number of unicorns has gone up. Unicorn has now become a catchphrase within the global startup market. When a startup becomes a unicorn, it shows how the business model of the company and its value proposition is in the eyes of the investors. The unicorn helps grows in both visibility and operational outlay, which often leads directly to greater business opportunities for the organization.

    The article ahead will give you an insight on How to become a Unicorn Startup, the Features & Characteristics of a Unicorn Company, and more.

    The Characteristics of Unicorn Startup
    Investors of the Unicorn Companies
    Can Only Startups be a Unicorn?
    Disruption and Value Seeding
    Market Size of the Unicorn Companies
    Maximizes Growth and Net Profit
    Which Indian Startups turned Unicorn in 2021?
    FAQ’s
    Conclusion

    The Characteristics of Unicorn Startup

    The process to be a unicorn is not easy and each and every unicorn has its own story. All the unicorn companies have a similar set of features that makes them a unicorn startup.

    • Groundbreaking innovations: The unicorn companies have brought a disruption in the field they belong to. Uber, for example, changed the way people commuted. While Airbnb is known to have changed the way people planned their way while traveling. The innovative strategies are what make them a unicorn company.
    • The First innovations: The unicorn companies are mostly the starters in their industry. They change the way people do things and gradually create a necessity for themselves. They are also known to continuously innovate and stay ahead of competitors which might later boom.
    • High Technology: Most unicorn companies have a business model run on a higher level of technology. Almost 87% of the unicorn products are software, 7% of them being hardware, while the other 6% of them being based on products and services.
    • Consumer-focused startups: Their main goal into simplify and make things easy for consumers and be a part of their day-to-day life. Over 62% of the unicorns are particularly B2C companies. Another key ingredient is keeping their products and services affordable.
    • Privately owned: Many known unicorn companies are nowadays privately owned which gets their valuation bigger when an established company invests in it. There are more than 361 private companies around the world valued at over $1 billion. India has 16 of these companies, that are taking up 4% of the overall share.
    Popular unicorn companies outside US
    Popular unicorn companies outside the US

    Key ingredients of a Unicorn

    • To make a simple solution to an existing problem
    • Make a strong and highly marketable value proposition
    • Make a plan in order to have a clear vision for the future of the company and the products and services they offer
    • Unicorn companies have Potential beta testers and customers
    • They usually have an easy-to-use UX that allows users to quickly adapt and get the product.

    Investors of the Unicorn Companies

    Great ideas usually don’t have value until you do something with them, which is what the unicorns companies are good at as they have the right people, skills, tools, and data to make the magic happen. This is taken into consideration by the investors for deciding which startup to fund. It is very important to project revenue and growth.

    Some projections need to be backed by hard data and the forecasting growth for the next 6, 12, or 18 months. If a startup in need of funding without any numbers to back up its claims, the potential investor may not be interested in good. Recent startups wait in order to seek out investors until they have a marketable product with proven demand as well as a number of opportunities coming your way.

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    Can Only Startups be a Unicorn?

    The answer is yes because the unicorn is a term given only to startups who have a valuation of over a billion. The only startups that have a valuation of 10 billion are grouped under the term called decacon (which is a super unicorn). Dropbox, SpaceX, and WeWork are some examples of decacon.

    For the startups that are based out of Canada, there is an exclusive term for what we call a unicorn. It is the narwhal. This means that any Canadian startup company with a valuation of over 1 billion is called a narwhal. Some of the famous narwhale companies are Hootsuite and Wattpad.

    How to become a unicorn startup in 2020

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    Which Indian Startups turned Unicorn 2021?

    Startup Unicorn 2021
    Indian Unicorn Startups 2021

    Here’s the list of Top Unicorn Startups in India 2021

    Disruption and Value Seeding

    The main reason behind the growth and success of each and every unicorn is the disruptive impact it has on its chosen market. A well-known example of this is the on-demand taxi aggregator Uber. Uber uses smartphones as a medium to connect consumers with their nearby cab drivers at the touch of the button, the only reason that has driven the massive success that the company continues to enjoy.

    Uber not only made booking a cab booking more convenient for the end-user but also headed more operational efficiency for cab drivers and taxi service providers by helping them optimize their revenue streams. As a result, the company is now one of the most successful unicorns with a valuation of 64.5 billion in 2020.

    Market Size of the Unicorn Companies

    It is important for startups aspiring to make the title of a unicorn in order to analyze the market they are operating in. Entrepreneurs must understand and analyze their target markets well in advance in order to aim for the title of a unicorn in order to analyze the markets they are operating in. They must analyze their target market and target audience well in advice before aiming to make their startups into the next big thing in the startup community.

    An example of the is Airbnb. Founded as an alternative lodging/hotel solution for business travelers all over the world, the company then changed its approach to target the much larger global hotel industry, which is currently worth 550 million.

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    Maximizes Growth and Net Profit

    There no fixed rule that requires a company to be profitable in order to become a unicorn. In fact one of the earliest unicorns, Nutanix earned the status in 2013 despite a complete lack of profits. The point is that profits and growth don’t always go hand in hand. In fact, going after profit can sometimes slow your ability to increase revenue.

    The startups must work towards building sustainable growth rather than opting for a quick, short-sighted bump in profits. Instead of only focusing on growing your margins to impress investors with fast ROI, they must also focus on perfecting your product, increasing your total revenue, and growing your user base.

    FAQ’s

    What is a startup unicorn?

    A term that describes a privately-owned startup with a valuation of over $1 billion.

    What is a unicorn in a startup?

    In finance, “unicorn” is a term that describes a privately-owned startup. The term was introduced by venture capital investor, Aileen Lee, in 2013 to describe rare tech startups that were valued at more than $1 billion. The phenomenon of unicorns is quite controversial.

    Which Indian startup became unicorns in 2020?

    In all, 11 Indian startups — Unacademy, Pine Labs, FirstCry, Zenoti, Nykaa, Postman, Zerodha, Razorpay, Cars24, Dailyhunt, and Glance — became unicorns this year.

    Which is India’s fastest Unicorn startup?

    Bengaluru and San Francisco-based SaaS startup Postman became the fastest SaaS startup to reach unicorn status. In June 2020, the six-year-old startup secured a Series C funding of $150 million at a valuation of $2 billion.

    Which country has the most unicorns?

    The number of unicorn companies found in China in early 2020 was bigger than those of 29 other countries, including Germany, India, and the UK, combined.

    Conclusion

    Hope you got an idea on how to build a unicorn startup & what are the unicorn startups’ characteristics. Startups into tech will now embrace machine intelligence mostly in its devices or products. Artificial intelligence is the future and is making innovations in the tech industry for years. But its presence will become more in the coming years. This in turn will give rise to unicorn startups which will dominant the startup industry. The moto is not to make unicorn startups but to create something that takes away the human effort by making the world a little better.