Daytona is a self-hosted and secure open-source development environment manager. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Daytona CEO and co-founder Ivan Burazin to learn more about the company.
Ivan Burazin’s Background
What is Ivan Burazin’s background? Burazin said:
“My journey in dev tools began when I co-founded Codeanywhere back in 2009. I also established the Shift Developer Conference, which has grown into a leading global event. When was I hired by Infobip, I served as Chief Developer Experience Officer at the company.”
Formation Of Daytona
How did the idea for the company come together? Burazin shared:
“The idea for Daytona emerged from our deep understanding of the Cloud Development Environments (CDEs) market. But the decision to jump on the bandwagon came from a pull from the market, namely from enterprises looking for a solution. An enterprise-grade, self-hosted CDE did not exist to fit their needs.”
“So, with our experience from Codeanywhere, combined with the increasing adoption of CDEs by individual developers and the security needs of larger enterprises, we were uniquely positioned to create Daytona. We saw an opportunity to fill this gap in the market and provide a solution that could meet the stringent requirements of enterprise clients while still offering the benefits of modern CDEs.”
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory working for the company so far? Burazin reflected:
“I’ve loved the whole ride, but probably the most exciting part was closing that first customer, even before we raised a penny from investors. Sales – for me personally that’s the real exciting part.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Burazin explained:
“Our core product is a self-hosted ‘Development Environment Management’ platform. It allows developers to create fully working environments with a single command: ‘daytona create’. Our platform can be run on an infra cloud or on-prem, offering the security enterprises need.”
Challenges Faced
What challenges have Burazin and the team faced in building the company? Burazin acknowledged:
“Building a startup always comes with challenges, and Daytona is no exception. Every morning brings at least one, if not more, challenges our way. We’ve faced the typical hurdles of acquiring customers, hiring the right talent, and fundraising. Of course, we’ve also had our share of setbacks, such as losing deals, having to let people go, and facing rejections. These challenges are particularly intense in the early stages of a startup.”
Evolution Of Daytona’s Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since launching? Burazin noted:
“We started with a focus on large enterprises, but we’ve since expanded our vision. In early 2024, we launched an open-source version of Daytona, making our technology accessible to individual developers worldwide. With this, we hope to help every developer, not just those in large enterprises.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Burazin cited:
“We’ve had several exciting milestones. We raised a $2 million pre-seed round, followed by a $5 million seed round led by Upfront Ventures. Our open-source launch was incredibly successful, amassing over 3000 GitHub stars in just 48 hours. We’ve also seen strong business growth, nearly doubling our Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) in six months.”
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is the company pursuing? Burazin assessed:
“The broader DevOps market has been estimated by some analysts to be even larger, potentially reaching $20 to $25 billion by 2026.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Burazin affirmed:
“When compared to different competitors, our differentiators can vary, but our core strength lies is our ability to provide an exceptional developer experience while adhering to stringent security constraints. This is a unique trate today’s development landscape.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future company goals?
“Our ultimate goal is to become the “way of work” for all developers globally starting with the enterprise sector. We want to make every developer more productive and enable a new cohort of people to become developers by removing unnecessary complexities.
