Founded in 2007, 3scale provides a Plug & Play SaaS API Management platform and infrastructure which enables developers and companies to securely open, control, manage, operate and monetize their APIs to third parties.
Today, 3scale API Management solution powers 350+ API programs from Fortune500 companies, SMBs, Startups, Governments and Administrations, Charities and Colleges/Universities.
Not familiar with API’s? An application programming interface (API) specifies how some software components should interact with each other. In other words: APIs make possible to interconnect applications by exposing some of a program’s internal functions to the outside world –which in turn makes it possible for applications to share data and take actions on each other’s behalf without requiring developers to share all of their software’s code.
Curious to know more? Steven Wilmott, CEO at 3scale, kindly responded some questions and shared the skinny on all things 3scale with us! Let’s dive into them…
1. What is 3scale and who does it target?
Today’s Internet is becoming increasingly connected – companies need to provide applications and service in many different ways from mobile to in-home appliance or even wearable devices. They also need to provide integration capabilities for the customers and partners to move data around and drive transactions. 3scale provides infrastructure that enables others to open and manage APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) that provide precisely the data infrastructure to serve these needs. As such the company forms part of the glue that helps make today’s web more interconnected.
2. Why did you decide to create 3scale?
When we founded the company, we saw the beginnings of organizations and individuals starting to open APIs and recognized how tremendously valuable they were in many context – APIs have the potential to make the Internet and Web truly programmable. However, such systems needed to be stable, secure, well managed and visible to their users to succeed. So we aimed to help provide the complex infrastructure to do this in a way which was “out of the box” and easy to deploy.
3. What are your expectations for the future?
APIs are going from strength to strength and we expect them to become one of the most important elements in data and transaction flows on the web. We’re seeing interest in APIs grow month on month and hence the company expects to grow rapidly in the next few years.
4. You have offices in San Francisco, London and Barcelona. Why did you choose these cities?
The company was proudly founded in Barcelona – and Barcelona is still where our core engineering resides. However we quickly branched out to offices in London and San Francisco since the majority of our customers were US and UK based.
5. How big is your team in the Barcelona office? Do you keep in contact with the rest of the team in other cities?
The Barcelona office is currently 22 people. Communication between the offices is critical and much of the day-to-day work in the company involves syncing between teams in different offices or on the road. Skype, Google Hangouts, IRC and other tools all play a big part in making the company run.
6. How would you describe the work environment?
The company prides itself on making the best products for the sector and serving our customers well. Teams are highly autonomous so they can think out of the box to get things done and the management team’s job is to get out of people’s way as much as possible.
7. What do you look for in candidates for jobs in 3scale?
Rather than a specific skill set, we look for primarily intelligence, curiosity and candidates who have pushed the limits of their previous roles and can think on their feet. At a company like ours, roles rarely stay the same for long, so people on the team need to learn and adapt. Lastly, being a team player is critical – most things cannot be done by one person hence, the ability to empathize, contribute to a team and do the right thing are indispensable.
8. Which is that special feature someone Must have join the 3scale team?
Perseverance – many of the challenges we solve are very hard technically or require numerous iterations to make them understandable enough to use. Hence people joining the team should be motivated and committed enough to make the breakthroughs we’re aiming for.
9. Last words…?
APIs are becoming a new layer of technical infrastructure for the Web that does not exist today – as a company we’re working to help make that happen and are always keen to find people thinking in the same direction.
Business Profile
Company: 3scale
Website: www.3scale.net
E-mail: info@3scale.net
Twitter: @3scale
Founders and key employees:
• Steven Willmott, CEO, @njyx
• Guillaume Balas, CMO, @guillaumebalas
• Mark Cheshire, COO, @markcheshire
Main Business Activities: 3scale provides operations and business infrastructure for companies launching and operating APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) that enable them to integrate with mobile applications, customers and partners.
Main Customers: The company has over 300 customers including Campell’s Soup, Skype, The Daily Telegraph, The City of New York and London Transport
Offices in: San Francisco, Barcelona, London