Welcome to the first InstaCI blog post. This first entry will go over our mission, why it’s important, and how our approach is different from what’s been done before.
First, a bit about us: Beginning with a strong focus on testing for mobile development, we have reimagined the current user experience and built a non-traditional end-to-end continuous integration platform that provides a lot of amazing benefits that are focused on productivity and inclusivity. Our mission is to democratize the way that developers and non-technical colleagues can collaborate and push high-value code.
If you ask a larger development team to name one thing they hate the most about their current development process, chances are they will say their CI system. The solutions in the market today are expensive, clunky, non-portable, and ineffecient. These items result in receding performance and reduced collaboration as the team grows.
We feel that there is a better way…
With a strong focus on mobile development, Insta can consolidate disparate tools through our end-to-end platform, reduce the risk of each release and proactively avoid compounding problems throughout the entire testing journey.
So why Insta?
Well, a little about us…we met back in 2014 when we joined PayPal, formerly a subsidiary of eBay Inc., which occurred through quite irregular approaches.
Emmanuel joined PayPal after he developed a wildly successful JS library that gained notoriety from many of the largest news sites across the globe. Originating from Venezuela, Emmanuel had received funds that were sent to his PayPal account in exchange for use of the JS library. When not being able to access the funds, PayPal reached out to ask if he would like to join and help solve that problem. On the other side of the same coin, Alex had joined PayPal through a technology acquisition based on software from a company that he had started earlier, which eBay Inc. had acquired. They leveraged his software to help improve the ad revenue metrics that product and engineering teams were relying on, specifically ROAS.
A few years after joining PayPal, Alex and Emmanuel both left to grow and improve their skill sets. Throughout this time, Alex joined a cyber security start-up as a Strategic Sales Director, which was eventually bought for $830M, and Emmanuel spent his time as a Sr. Software Engineer while working on very high-value opportunities at Google. Over this period, Emmanuel realized how cumbersome the mobile testing process currently is today for developers, and how there isn’t a great solution out there can truly tackle the daily problems that he is forced to work through. So, he decided to do something about it.
Shortly after beginning to build the platform, Alex joined Emmanuel to help package the product and deliver value to the public in a way that would capture the true magic of the incredible Insta platform.
With their diverse backgrounds, Insta is uniquely positioned to help make testing suck less.
Run real-time emulators in the cloud
Don’t waste time and resources integrating additional services to compare images, or run emulators in the cloud. These integrations are expensive, fragile, and don’t have a shared view of your journey.
Expressive & Powerful APIs
Import and extend our open sourced package with high programmability & portability
Rich Task Breakdowns
Our output enables you to spend less time debugging.
…and many more other great differentiating features! Reach out for a quick demo and to learn about how to try our platform for free.
More to come soon.
Alex Forss
Co-Founder
Insta