Addressing Live Application Challenges with Cased

A common challenge faced by developers is troubleshooting issues in live applications without causing disruptions. Access to live environments is often restricted within many organizations due to these risks.

Cased, a startup in its early stages, has developed a solution designed to facilitate safe interaction with live applications. The company recently announced a $2.25 million seed funding round, spearheaded by Founders Fund, alongside contributions from a number of prominent technology angel investors.

Simultaneously, Cased revealed the general availability of its product to all developers, marking its first public release. It is noteworthy that while the funding was secured last April, the announcement was made today.

The Genesis of Cased

Bryan Byrne, CEO and co-founder of Cased, explains that he and his co-founders, all previously employed at GitHub, directly encountered the difficulties of working within live production environments. He notes that larger corporations typically address this by developing custom tools internally.

However, this approach isn't feasible for many smaller businesses. “We observed at GitHub that the developer experience tends to become more complex over time, hindering developers' ability to complete production tasks effectively,” Byrne stated.

“Our goal was to provide a developer-centric method for handling production work,” he continued.

The Impact of Limited Access

Without appropriate tools, CTOs are often compelled to limit access to production code. This restriction, in turn, complicates the process of resolving issues as they emerge in live environments. “Organizations are often forced to curtail access to production systems and the tools developers require for production work.

Major technology companies invest significantly in creating excellent developer experiences, but smaller companies often lack these resources. We aim to equip all companies with the essential components needed to deliver a superior developer experience from the outset,” Byrne explained.

This is achieved by granting development teams unrestricted access to production command-line tools, enhanced with logging and approval workflows for sensitive operations. This allows leadership to broaden access while maintaining control through defined rules and audit trails of production environment access.

Launch and Future Growth

The company initiated operations at the start of the previous year, collaborating with design partners and initial customers before officially launching to the public today.

Currently, Cased comprises five individuals, including the four founders. Byrne reports a positive initial response to the product and indicates they are actively recruiting new team members.

He emphasizes that diversity and inclusion are high priorities for the founders, even at this early stage. “We have prominently featured these principles in our company handbook to ensure we prioritize an inclusive culture from the beginning.

We understand that neglecting this early on can significantly impede a company’s progress and cultural development. Culture is established from day one,” he affirmed.

To support this commitment, the company plans to operate as a remote-first organization even after the pandemic subsides, believing this will facilitate the creation of a more diverse workforce.

“We will absolutely maintain a remote-first approach. We believe this also promotes diversity and inclusion by enabling individuals to work from any location. Our experience leading remote-first cultures at GitHub has prepared us for this, and we will continue to embrace this model,” Byrne concluded.