On EQT Ventures’ investment in Netlify, the best way to build modern web projects
Shortly after I started at EQT Ventures, our internal AI system, Motherbrain, flagged that it had given a very high score to a company called Netlify. I glanced over the description and felt a bit confused. “Are static sites still a thing?” I messaged some friends, advisors, and coworkers. All were skeptical, because we were thinking about this:
But the incongruity of seeing a relatively new startup doing something with static sites in a dynamic world piqued my curiosity. Coincidentally, around this time, I met Netlify’s CEO, Mathias, at a party and figured that someone so obviously brilliant had to be onto something that I just didn’t yet understand. As I started reading and asking around about the evolution of frontend web development, I realized what a huge movement Netlify was spearheading and enabling in the JAMstack.
JAMstack is a web development framework based on Javascript, APIs, and Markup (“JAM”!). Building sites in this way provides a dynamic experience, with all the benefits of a static architecture: a more humane developer experience, blazing-fast performance, and better security and scalability, all at a lower cost. The result is a more flexible web, because it’s decoupled from monolithic backend infrastructure with all its incumbent costs, frictions, and attack surfaces. Front-end developers are happier as they no longer have to deal with that infrastructure. And Netlify provides the platform for building and deploying sites in this new, modern paradigm. It is, as countless developers I’ve spoken to have said, magical.
When I set up my own blog (because every VC needs a blog, right?), I did it with Netlify. I’m not a developer, but I possess basic Javascript / HTML / CSS literacy and an ability to search Stack Overflow, and within an hour I had a lightweight site up and running. When we began working on a refresh of the EQT Ventures website, our agency pitched a JAMstack-based design.
Of course, it’s not just my and EQT Ventures’ sites. More than a thousand new developers are signing up for Netlify every day. Nearly three million custom-domain websites have been built on Netlify. And Netlify-deployed sites are serving hundreds of millions of unique IP addresses every month.
The community of developers behind those numbers is strong and growing. I’ve attended JAMstack conferences* in New York and San Francisco (and London by proxy) and have been floored by the positive vibes and excitement, the inclusive and diverse audience and speakers, and the eagerness of attendees to talk about how much they love all things JAMstack. That energy is due in no small part to the commitment of the Netlify founders, Mathias and Christian, to encouraging the development of the ecosystem.
A quick word about Mathias and Christian: they’re community-minded, hyper-intelligent, and hard-working. They’re passionate and obsessive, but, in the words of one blind reference, “sufficiently chill to be able to go into the frustrating and stressful world of making websites always be up.” They’ve shown that they’re able to attract an amazing team of A+ players. And above all, they’re the kind of compassionate, authentic people that we at EQT Ventures want to work with.
This is just beginning for Netlify, and for the JAMstack. If your company has a website, there’s no reason it shouldn’t be on the JAMstack. Tons of great products have been built, and are being built, to make the experience even better, like Fauna (database for serverless applications), Gatsby (static site generator), Sanity (structured content), Stackbit (website development management tools), Uniform (digital experience stack), and Outsmartly (A/B testing and optimization) — to name just a few.
Over a year after I first met Mathias, we’re thrilled to announce EQT Ventures’ investment into Netlify. We’re so excited to support them on this journey to build a faster, safer web for all!
*Want to see for yourself? Check out a JAMstack conference in San Francisco or London!
