Covers 0:00–5:46. Martin's path from university into startups, before Rapportive and LinkedIn.

Path overview

  • Undergraduate computer science → first startup (didn't work out) → second startup (Rapportive) → sold to LinkedIn → moved to teaching distributed systems and writing DDIA → switched from industry back to academia during the writing of the book. 2:52 3:20

First startup: GoTest.it (~2008)

  • A cross-browser automated testing service for websites, built on Selenium and offered as a hosted service so customers wouldn't have to run their own VMs with different OS/browser combinations. Context: Internet Explorer was still big, Chrome had just come out, and browsers were mutually incompatible. 3:20 3:47
  • It worked technically, but adoption was the hard part: prospects agreed cross-browser testing mattered in theory, but wouldn't integrate it into their workflow or invest in writing test scripts. 4:20
  • Comparable companies from that era did survive — Sauce Labs succeeded — but even for them it was a slow-running, hard business. 4:45
  • Built in the UK, mostly bootstrapped: Martin funded hires through consulting work, hired friends cheaply, with only a small amount of angel money. 5:13 5:31