Depot: Revolutionizing Software Development with Faster Builds and Enhanced Productivity
Waiting for containerized builds to run and test applications is one of the most time-consuming and inefficient parts of software development. Recognizing this issue, Kyle Galbraith, a developer who often found himself waiting for software builds, co-founded Depot, a build acceleration platform designed to make builds significantly faster. Recently, Depot announced a successful $4.1 million seed funding round led by Felicis, with participation from Y Combinator, Aviso Ventures, Tokyo Black, and several angel investors, further propelling its expansion and development.
Depot’s Vision: Near-Instant Builds with Comprehensive Ecosystem Integration
Depot aims to make all builds, whether local or in continuous integration, nearly instant with comprehensive ecosystem integration. By using the same Linux VMs as others and optimizing them with its own tools and services, Depot provides generically faster build processes across the board. The company’s ultimate goal is to streamline the entire build process, making it more efficient and seamless.
Origin Story: Addressing Inefficiencies in Container Image Builds
Founded in 2022 by Galbraith and Jacob Gillespie, Depot was born out of their experience as platform and DevOps engineers. They developed Depot to address the inefficiencies and slow performance of container image builds within GitHub Actions, a common pain point in software development. By putting the build kit on cloud virtual machines (VMs) and automatically persisting layer cache to real SSDs, Depot initially made builds five times faster.
Rapid Scale-Up and Notable Clients
Depot has experienced rapid growth since its launch. After attracting 10 customers in its first week and gaining another 10 within just two to three weeks of its full product launch, Depot joined Y Combinator’s Winter 2023 batch, further accelerating its growth. Currently, Depot’s platform is helping over 1,800 organizations, processing 1.3 million builds monthly. Notable clients, such as PostHog, Wistia, and Semgrep, have adopted Depot’s solution to streamline their software development processes.
Speed and Cost-Savings: Depot’s Platform Benefits
Depot’s platform leverages optimized Linux VMs with proprietary tools and services, supporting native Intel and ARM builds. The platform is popular with AI companies that build and package large language models (LLMs), as well as with traditional web app developers and application service providers. Depot offers developers ease of use and performance benefits, allowing them to create a Depot account and simply swap Docker build for Depot build. The platform optimizes context transfer by sending only changed files between builds, without any discovered upper limit on application size. Developers can build several terabyte LLM model files, even those that cannot be built locally.
Dev-Centric Approach and Enhanced Security Measures
Depot distinguishes itself not only through its performance but also through its customer-centric approach. The company actively listens to customer feedback and addresses their pain points promptly. Billing and security practices are tailored to address common industry pain points, such as billing by the minute and counting by the second. Depot ensures security by isolating each build in a dedicated VM, eliminating the risk of interference from neighboring customers.
Depot’s Future with Seed Funding
Depot’s seed funding will support the company’s expansion and development of new build inputs to further accelerate development processes. The company is expanding support to include macOS and Windows environments, broadening its appeal to a wider range of developers. Depot also has plans to partner with other services, such as Fly.io, and develop AI-powered build optimization suggestions using a fine-tuned model. Jake Storm, a Partner at Felicis, recognizes the potential impact of Depot’s technology on the software development industry, noting that Depot is scaling the build acceleration platform that will revolutionize developer productivity in all environments.
Conclusion
Depot’s rapid growth, innovative approach, and commitment to addressing developer pain points have made it a standout in the tech industry. As the company continues to expand its platform and reach, it is quickly becoming a critical piece of infrastructure for developers aiming to speed up their software development cycles. With its focus on faster builds, comprehensive ecosystem integration, and enhanced productivity, Depot is revolutionizing the way software is developed and empowering developers worldwide.
