Thx folks, it has been a awesome ride so far. That's only possibly due to the gr...

rsp1984 · on April 9, 2018

Thanks for leaving a comment here :)

Now that I have your ear, may I make a suggestion? Please be a little more specific about what Bitmovin does on your website. Right now the first thing I read is:

    "Software to Solve Complex Video Problems.
    Bitmovin API based products help developers around the world
    solve the most complex video problems with cloud native software that runs anywhere"

That is a very broad statement. I would consider myself quite technical but I don't have deep domain knowledge in video coding and infrastructure. Quite honestly I can't get much information out of this.

What kind video problems are you solving (except that they're "most complex")? What is "cloud native software"? How do you define "runs anywhere"? Will it run on my Smartphone / PC / Car / Container / Toaster?

I just want to know what your company does [1]

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15170182

newusertoday · on April 9, 2018

some of the problems that they are solving are

- inserting ads between videos(configurable)

- serving videos for different screen size(if you send same video to all device, device has to do resizing in addition to decoding)

- serving videos in different network conditions(HLS/DASH) where based on bandwidth lower/higher bitrate video is requested from the server.

- seamlessly serving videos by switching video sources even for encrypted content.

- In HLS/DASH, player is the complex(intelligent) part as it senses the bandwith and send requests to server, they are giving readymade player implementation through SDK's

lossolo · on April 9, 2018

Most of those problems are already solved by open source tools and standard on video streaming services like amazon, netflix, hbogo etc.

There are mature open source clients that will do most of those things automatically out of the box. For example shaka player from Google.

Terretta · on April 9, 2018

Better not to depend on client for functionality.

Don’t repeat the “JS required” situation in video, or next thing you know you’re rederiving Flash.

mv4 · on April 9, 2018

Congrats! It's very encouraging to see video tech with a solid customer base, and good investor support.

Which factors do you think contributed most to your success? Was YC helpful in opening doors for you? How important is the right kind of investor?

slederer · on April 9, 2018

Thanks!

For us it was really important to find people that help us along the way, and that definitely includes all our investors, as well as Ycombinator. We're engineers and we definitely learned so much about building a product and a go to market strategy during our time at YCombinator. Having a technology alone is often not enough.

We also raised money form some silicon valley veterans and angels, and I use them as a resource for advice and expertise. One of the was the first CTO of Cisco for example, and I always learn so much in talking with him. Pretty cool to see how one can apply things from those companies also today.

But most importantly, it's the team. you need a great to come to this point, otherwise you struggle quite early. I'm really proud to work with our folks, they really do all the work.

mv4 · on April 9, 2018

Thank you for the tips - and best of luck to you guys!