Your memories of the earliest computers probably involve the image of a large box with a keyboard and a tiny screen that’s full of text with a flashing cursor. This interface is usually a part of a shell that provides the command line or terminal that’s used to tell a computer what to do. While computing has evolved to intuitive graphical user interfaces that do not require knowledge of coding, the terminal is still the conduit that developers and software engineers use to create applications. Despite advancements in nearly every aspect of computers, this terminal hasn’t really changed over the last 40+ years. Warp is on a mission to change that with its redesigned terminal experience that seamlessly incorporates AI and Cloud to address today’s modern computing environment. Replacing the existing terminal that requires seemingly unlimited knowledge of commands without any guided assistance, Warp has built a full-text editor with embedded search functionality as well as the ability to type what you are looking to do and the embedded AI will provide suggested commands to complete the task. The company also integrates other features that are similar to the functionality found in modern code editors directly into the terminal. By streamlining the development environment and by making workflows shareable, the platform is driving productivity increases for developers. Under the hood, Warp is a fully-native, GPU-accelerated, Rust-based terminal that’s currently in public beta for Mac developers and currently free.
AlleyWatch caught up with Warp CEO Zach Lloyd to learn more about the business, the company’s strategic plans, latest round of funding, and much, much more…
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
Warp announced its Seed and Series A rounds, totaling $23M from investors that include Dylan Field, GV, Jeff Weiner, Elad Gil, BoxGroup, Neo, and others.
Tell us about the product or service that Warp offers.
The terminal is one of the two most used dev tools, and yet it hasn’t been significantly redefined since the 70s. Warp is trying to revamp the terminal, bringing modern features with Cloud and AI to a tool that almost every single developer uses.
What inspired the start of Warp?
I have 20 years of engineering experience, and even I wasn’t great at the terminal. I felt like the terminal actually limited my workflows instead of empowering me to do more.
How is Warp different?
We have a full text editor where you enter developer commands, you can search for commands in Warp (without having to go to Google), it’s significantly faster and easier to read, and you can find commands if you don’t know the exact command by typing in the command in natural language, and AI will match it
What market does Warp target and how big is it?
Warp could target every single developer. Nearly every single software engineer uses the terminal.
What’s your business model?
Warp is currently free for all individual developers. We plan to build team, organization, and enterprise features and monetize those.
What are your post-COVID office plans?
We currently have a small office in NYC. We plan to expand the office in NYC as the team expands.
What was the funding process like?
Stressful but also exciting! It made me think about what Warp could become one day, which is very very inspiring and exciting.
What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?
While we were raising capital, I had to think about the future of the company. But at the same time, the team and I had to be relentlessly focused on the present and improving the product we had today.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
Investors were really excited about the vision we had. This is a tool that nearly every software engineer uses, and it hasn’t been revamped since the 70s. If we do it right, we can impact almost every software developer on the planet. That’s huge.
Investors were really excited about the vision we had. This is a tool that nearly every software engineer uses, and it hasn’t been revamped since the 70s. If we do it right, we can impact almost every software developer on the planet. That’s huge.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
We hope to significantly grow our amount of daily active users, and start testing a few features with teams.
What advice can you offer companies in New York that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
Keep at it! Before we raised our Series A, we had an amazing team who believed in our vision and what Warp could be some day. Lean into your team and remember why you started in the first place.
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
We plan to continue building out our product, and focusing on accessibility and focusing on making sure that when developers switch, they can do their normal workflows in Warp. We also plan to grow the team, which is super exciting.
What’s your favorite outdoor dining restaurant in NYC?
Bessou.
