

Peteris Krumins: How I went to Silicon Valley and raised $55,000 for Browserling - noas
http://www.catonmat.net/blog/how-i-raised-money-for-browserling/

======
bprater
Check out their startup: <http://browserling.com/>

It allows you to not just get a screenshot of the site you are working on in a
variety of browsers, but you can actually navigate the site, click on links,
enter text, etc. Impressive!

For designers/developers who need big coverage on browsers, I suspect they are
going to do strong business.

I think the $20 pricing might be a bit high, but the 5 minutes free should
help a bunch of folks.

~~~
pkrumins
Yeah, the browsers run on Windowses and we stream the desktop to the browser!

$20 also gets you tunnels, so you can tunnel localhost or local network to
Browserling. Not available in the free plans!

~~~
bprater
OOh. That's sweet. You need, need, need to make that clear. Being able to
local dev and then share that with clients or customers is pretty huge.

Keep testing your pricing model. Don't get locked in this early. I suspect
that $15 might be the price point where it's a no-brainer for a certain group
of dev/designers.

~~~
pkrumins
Will do that. I'll redesign the pricing page altogether and make it obvious
what's what.

------
david927
I knew of each of you separately and have long thought you are brilliant. (How
YC passed on you I'll never know.)

I'm really happy to hear you're funded and going. Best of luck!

~~~
derwiki
Miss for YC, big win for the Hackers and Founders incubator. Browserling was
the start up I was most excited about on Not-a-Demo Day, in part because all
of their business cards were hand drawn and ripped from sheets of paper and
their browser logo cutouts were made from cereal boxes.

~~~
pkrumins
<3 Jonathan and Laura

------
dweekly
These guys were literally the perfect example of the mythical "starving
entrepreneurs" who walk into your office with a brilliant idea. I had to make
sure they could eat! :)

~~~
daniel-cussen
The treehouse in the bg is a nice touch.

------
orky56
Congrats! Adam Rifkin can really make things happen. Definitely worth meeting
and knowing him.

~~~
pkrumins
<3 Adam Rifkin

------
mcantelon
Congrats... nice to see some real hackers get a leg up!

~~~
pkrumins
Thank you!

------
lanstein
I'm sorry I was unable to recruit you to Splunk back in the day, but good luck
with Browserling!

~~~
pkrumins
Thanks. :)

------
dshankar
If I had money, I'd invest in you guys. Congrats on the funding!

~~~
pkrumins
You better save some up for when we raise the next round! :)

------
scottkrager
"Success, I was known in the Silicon Valley!"

Good read. You can feel the passion jumping out of the post.

~~~
pkrumins
Awww yeah!

------
endijs
Congrats Peteris! Prieks, ka kādam izdodas! Veiksmes! :)

~~~
pkrumins
Paldies! :)

------
cal5k
Are you a US citizen, or did you have to sort out work visas to make it
happen?

~~~
pkrumins
Went on a B1 visa "to raise investment for StackVM", which took 15 minutes to
get.

~~~
loevborg
As a fellow EU citizen, I'm interested in this. Could you elaborate? Are you
able to found or work at a start up in the U.S. with only a temporary visa?

~~~
pclark
You're allowed to found a company in the US - just not work for it nor be paid
by it. The B1 is a 3-6 month visa, most people just use the visa waiver
program.

~~~
StavrosK
Surely you can get paid by your own company? Do you mean you can't become an
employee for it?

~~~
pclark
You cannot work for an American company

~~~
StavrosK
I just did five minutes ago, and the invoice was paid two minutes ago, so you
clearly can. Perhaps you mean you can't become an employee of one?

~~~
sgman
Do you live in the US?

~~~
StavrosK
No.

------
aashay
Browserling is some seriously impressive work. Congrats and thank you for all
the Node.JS open-source work too!

~~~
pkrumins
You're welcome!

------
dayjah
I see tunnels as a key feature, but you know this - I've been talking about
tunnels on browserling for _ages_ :) Glad you raised money and very happy that
the H&F family made it happen for you.

Looking forward to you being back in the Bay Area.

~~~
pkrumins
I'll announce tunnels in my next blog post! They are already live (the ssh
icon on the right, when you use Browserling) but I haven't announced them
anywhere, so almost no one knows about them!

See you soon in the Bay Area!

------
massarog
I really love your service, however, I'm not a fan of the design (seems
cartoonish). Was this just the design aspect you were going for or are you
seeking a redesign in the near future?

~~~
pkrumins
We like the design! We're not looking for a redesign.

------
west
Nice work! A "check on the spot" definitely helps validate the idea.

~~~
pkrumins
It sure does!

------
rayboyd
Great story and best of luck to you guys going forward. This is a very useful
tool. I find myself using it more and more lately when I need a quick test
spin in the explorers.

~~~
pkrumins
Awesome that you like it!

------
jackfoxy
Congrats Peteris and James! I've had a lot of fun watching the progress of
Browserling through interacting with it. And congrats to Jonathan and Laura
too!

~~~
pkrumins
Jonathan and Laura took us to dinners when we were almost out of money and
hungry! They are truly the kindest people I have ever met.

------
bluehat
Good job guys, and remember, if you're ever hungry, come back to Treehouse for
a meal. -Katy

------
changelog
His co-founder is SubStack, the same guy from yesterdays Browserify article:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2805195>

~~~
pkrumins
SubStack is the best hacker I know.

~~~
rook2pawn
his reach is beyond imagination.. dnode, hook.io, nowjs.

testling is going to take browserling to the next level!

