Optimizely

Optimizely is an American company that makes progressive delivery and experimentation software for other companies.[9] The Optimizely platform technology provides A/B testing and multivariate testing tools, website personalization, and feature toggle capabilities.[10][11]

Optimizely, Inc.
Private
IndustrySoftware, Website Optimization
FoundedJanuary 2010[1][2][3]
FounderDan Siroker[1][4][5]
Pete Koomen[1][6][7]
Headquarters
San Francisco, California
,
United States
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
  • Jay Larson
  • (CEO)
  • Dan Siroker
  • (Executive Chairman)
  • Pete Koomen
  • (CTO)
Number of employees
340 (as of July 2020)[8]
Websitehttps://www.optimizely.com

The company's headquarters are in San Francisco, California with offices in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Cologne, Germany, London, United Kingdom and Sydney, Australia.[12][13]

History

Optimizely was founded in 2010 by Dan Siroker and Pete Koomen, both formerly of Google.[1][14][15] Optimizely completed the Y Combinator seed accelerator program in the winter of 2010.[16] In November 2010, Optimizely closed a US$1.2 million funding round from angel investors.[17] The company became cash flow positive in 2011. In May 2012 Optimizely announced that it had raised new funding from Battery Ventures, GV, and InterWest Partners.[18]

In April 2013, Optimizely raised $28 million in Series A round funding. The round was led by Benchmark, with participation from Bain Capital Ventures and Optimizely's existing investors Battery Ventures, InterWest Partners, and Google Ventures. Benchmark's Peter Fenton joined Optimizely's board of directors.[19] As part of a larger international expansion plan, Optimizely announced in April 2013 the launch of their platform in nine additional languages: Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish.[20]

On April 17, Optimizely held its first Opticon user conference, where they announced the launch of their new mobile app A/B testing software.[21]

In May 2014, Optimizely raised $57 million in Series B funding. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from Benchmark and Bain Capital Ventures. As part of the round, Scott Weiss general partner at Andreessen Horowitz joined Optimizely's board of directors.[22]

In October 2015 the company released its second product for mobile and website personalization.[23][24][25] In the same month Optimizely raised $58 million in Series C funding, led by Index Ventures, with participation from firms such as Andreessen Horowitz, Bain Capital Ventures, Battery Ventures, Benchmark Capital, Citi Ventures, Danhua Capital, Salesforce Ventures and Tenaya Capital. As part of the round, Ilya Fushman of Index joined Optimizely's board of directors.[26][27][28]

On March 10, 2016 Optimizely laid off 40 employees, 10% of the workforce.[29][30]

In September 2016, the company released Optimizely X, with expanded solutions for web experimentation, personalization, recommendations, mobile, full stack and OTT.[31]

In July 2017, Jay Larson replaced Dan Siroker as the company's CEO.[32] Pete Koomen was the company's CTO in 2012.[33][34][35][36] Co-founder Dan Joseph Siroker became the company's Executive Chairman in July 2017.[32][1][37][38][39]

In July 2020, the company laid off 15% of its staff due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.[40]

Software

Optimizely has two product offerings, Optimizely Web and Optimizely Full Stack, with tools for web experimentation, personalization, recommendations, and feature flags. These products are delivered in a software as a service (SaaS) model.[41]

Awards and recognition

Optimizely was recognized as a Red Herring Top 100 North America 2013 Finalist.[42] The same year, it was recognized as a Finalist for the Digital Analytics Association New Technology of the Year Awards for Excellence 2013[43] and The Forrester Wave Seven Most Significant Online Testing Platform Providers 2013.[44] Optimizely CEO Dan Siroker was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2013.[45] The company was listed on San Francisco Business Times Best Place To Work list in 2014 and 2015.[46][47]

References
  1. Segall, Laurie (23 April 2012). "Optimizely aims to give Obama 2012 a data edge". CNN. Retrieved 7 February 2014.
  2. "YC-Funded Optimizely Makes It Remarkably Easy To Run A/B Tests On Your Website". TechCrunch. July 15, 2010. Retrieved August 29, 2013.
  3. "Celebrities (but not Ashton Kutcher) share their top cloud & infrastructure picks at Y". VentureBeat. 2013. Retrieved August 29, 2013.
  4. "YC-Funded Optimizely Makes It Remarkably Easy To Run A/B Tests On Your Website". TechCrunch. July 15, 2010. Retrieved August 29, 2013.
  5. "Celebrities (but not Ashton Kutcher) share their top cloud & infrastructure picks at Y". VentureBeat. 2013. Retrieved August 29, 2013.
  6. "YC-Funded Optimizely Makes It Remarkably Easy To Run A/B Tests On Your Website". TechCrunch. July 15, 2010. Retrieved August 29, 2013.
  7. "Celebrities (but not Ashton Kutcher) share their top cloud & infrastructure picks at Y". VentureBeat. 2013. Retrieved August 29, 2013.
  8. Mascarenhas, Natasha (2020-07-15). "Benchmark-backed Optimizely confirms it has laid off 15% of staff". TechCrunch.
  9. "Optimizely Enhances Free Feature Flagging Plan with Experimentation, Targeted Rollouts". MarTech Series. 2020-05-21. Retrieved 2020-07-27.
  10. "Which are the most popular A/B testing tools? [#ChartoftheDay] - Smart Insights Digital Marketing Advice". Smart Insights. 2016-06-29. Retrieved 2016-10-26.
  11. "Optimizely raises $50 million to expand its A/B testing and experimentation platform". VentureBeat. 2019-06-18. Retrieved 2020-07-27.
  12. "Silicon Valley start-up Optimizely sets up Asia-Pacific hub in Sydney". The Australian Financial Review. August 14, 2017. Retrieved November 7, 2017.
  13. "Optimizely launches Asia-Pacific headquarters in Australia". ZDNet. August 15, 2017. Retrieved November 7, 2017.
  14. "YC-Funded Optimizely Makes It Remarkably Easy To Run A/B Tests On Your Website". TechCrunch. July 15, 2010. Retrieved August 29, 2013.
  15. "Celebrities (but not Ashton Kutcher) share their top cloud & infrastructure picks at Y". VentureBeat. 2013. Retrieved August 29, 2013.
  16. "Yclist.com". 2013. Retrieved August 29, 2013.
  17. "Optimizely A/B Tests Its Way To $1.2 Million In Funding From A Roster Of Top Angels". TechCrunch. November 16, 2010. Retrieved August 29, 2013.
  18. "A/B Tester Optimizely Raises Funding From Battery And Google Ventures, Plans Mobile Launch". TechCrunch. May 30, 2012. Retrieved August 29, 2013.
  19. "Website Testing Service Optimizely Raises $28M Round Led By Benchmark, Plans Global Expansion". TechCrunch. April 10, 2013. Retrieved August 29, 2013.
  20. "Optimizely's Web Optimization Platform Now Available in Ten Languages". PR Newswire. April 25, 2013. Retrieved August 29, 2013.
  21. "Optimizely Brings Its A/B Testing Platform To iOS Apps". TechCrunch. April 17, 2014. Retrieved April 13, 2015.
  22. "Website Testing Company Optimizely Raises $57M Round Led By Andreessen Horowitz". TechCrunch. May 5, 2014. Retrieved May 17, 2014.
  23. Kepes, Ben (July 17, 2015). "Optimizely Moves From Simple A/B Testing To Complex Personalization". Retrieved October 7, 2015.
  24. Ha, Anthony (July 17, 2015). "Optimizely Moves Beyond Web And Mobile Testing With New Personalization Tools". TechCrunch. Retrieved October 7, 2015.
  25. Jones, Andrew (July 17, 2015). "Optimizely introduces new personalization capabilities for web and mobile". VentureBeat. Retrieved October 7, 2015.
  26. "Testing Company Optimizely Raises $58M As It Moves Into Personalization". TechCrunch. October 13, 2015. Retrieved October 13, 2015.
  27. "Optimizely raises $58 million in latest funding". Reuters. October 13, 2015. Retrieved October 13, 2015.
  28. "San Francisco startup founded by former Googlers grabs $58 million in funding". San Francisco Business Times. October 13, 2015. Retrieved October 13, 2015.
  29. "Controlling Our Own Destiny By Dan Siroker". March 10, 2016. Retrieved March 10, 2016.
  30. "Optimizely Is The Latest Big Startup To Announce Layoffs, And Likely Not The Last". March 10, 2016.
  31. "Optimizely: Meet Optimizely X". www.optimizely.com. Retrieved 2016-10-26.
  32. Ha, Anthony (11 July 2017). "Optimizely hires Jay Larson as its new CEO". TechCrunch. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
  33. Christian, Brian. "The A/B Test: Inside The Technology That's Changing The Rules Of Business". Wired. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
  34. Milian, Mark. "Pete Koomen: The Quest for More Clicks". BusinessWeek. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
  35. Swift, Mike. "Ex-Googlers penetrating Silicon Valley startup hierarchy". San Jose Mercury News. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
  36. Chapman, Lizette. "Man Crates Packages $3.1 Million Seed Round for Unusual Gifts for Men". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
  37. Klein, Ezra. "Obama's second term is upending what we think we know about Washington". The Washington Post. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
  38. Barret, Victoria. "30 Under 30: Technology". Forbes. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
  39. Taylor, Colleen. "Optimizely Co-Founder Pete Koomen On Using The Art Of A/B Testing". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  40. Mascarenhas, Natasha (2020-07-15). "Benchmark-backed Optimizely confirms it has laid off 15% of staff". TechCrunch.
  41. "Optimizely Raises $28 Million To Expand To Custom Website Service". Forbes. April 10, 2013. Retrieved August 29, 2013.
  42. "2013 Top 100 North America: Finalists". Red Herring. 2013. Retrieved August 29, 2013.
  43. "Awards for Excellence 2013: Finalists". Digital Analytics Association. 2013. Retrieved August 29, 2013.
  44. "The Forrester Wave™: Online Testing Platforms, Q1 2013". Forrester. February 13, 2013. Retrieved August 29, 2013.
  45. "30 Under 30: Technology". Forbes. 2013. Retrieved August 29, 2013.
  46. "Best Places to Work 2014". San Francisco Business Times. 28 April 2014. Retrieved 21 February 2019.
  47. "Best Places to Work Q&A: Empowered employees fuel Optimizely's rise". San Francisco Business Times. April 14, 2015. Retrieved April 15, 2015.
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