{"id":640153,"date":"2024-10-01T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-01T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/sequoia-backs-pydantic-to-expand-beyond-its-open-source-data-validation-framework\/"},"modified":"2024-10-01T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-10-01T09:00:00","slug":"sequoia-backs-pydantic-to-expand-beyond-its-open-source-data-validation-framework","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/sequoia-backs-pydantic-to-expand-beyond-its-open-source-data-validation-framework\/","title":{"rendered":"#Sequoia backs Pydantic to expand beyond its open source data-validation framework"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_84 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a2da05680b8c\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a2da05680b8c\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/sequoia-backs-pydantic-to-expand-beyond-its-open-source-data-validation-framework\/#Tried_and_tested\" >Tried and tested<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/sequoia-backs-pydantic-to-expand-beyond-its-open-source-data-validation-framework\/#Show_me_the_money\" >Show me the money<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<div>\n<p id=\"speakable-summary\" class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A U.K.-based, open-source startup is launching its first commercial product with the backing of one of Silicon Valley\u2019s most renowned venture capital firms.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/pydantic.dev\/\">Pydantic<\/a> on Monday launched an observability platform called <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/pydantic.dev\/logfire\">Logfire<\/a>, five months after trialing it in open beta, and announced $12.5 million in <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/watch-movies-tv-seriess\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"8\" title=\"Watch Movies &amp; TV Series\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Series<\/a> A funding led by Sequoia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, the company is better known for its eponymous Python library and open source data-validation framework, started by U.K developer <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/scolvin.com\/\">Samuel Colvin<\/a>\u00a0back in 2017. The project has gone from strength to strength,\u00a0and is now <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/docs.pydantic.dev\/latest\/why\/#customisation\">used by developers at<\/a> some of the world\u2019s biggest companies including Meta, Nvidia, Netflix, Google and OpenAI.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Companies deploy Pydantic within <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>lications that need to verify the type of data a user has entered \u2014 if a form requires an email address and the user instead inputs a phone number or leaves it blank, Pydantic checks this and delivers a user-friendly error message. It basically validates data structures to ensure integrity and has myriad use-cases. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For example, ChatGPT maker <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/openai.com\/index\/introducing-structured-outputs-in-the-api\/\">OpenAI introduced structured<\/a> outputs for its API in August, and this feature uses Pydantic under the hood. So if a company wants to develop a chatbot that collects user details and returns them in a structured manner so the data can be easily processed by the system, it would use Pydantic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhere Pydantic is exciting is that it is the default way of validating the response from an LLM,\u201d Colvin told TechCrunch in an interview last week. \u201cSo if you want to do structured output, that\u2019s how you do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Colvin launched Pydantic as a commercial entity in 2022, emerging from stealth 18 months ago with $4.7 million in seed funding from Sequoia. And it seems it\u2019s now time to start making money \u2014 indeed, Colvin said the company is, effectively, looking to \u201ccash-in on our credibility and our brand name,\u201d using Pydantic as the carrot-on-a-stick for other products, rather than building on Pydantic itself.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"3000\" height=\"2000\" src=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/team_d4d6e6.jpg?w=680\" alt=\"Pydantic team\" class=\"wp-image-2889357\" srcset=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/team_d4d6e6.jpg 3000w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/team_d4d6e6.jpg?resize=150,100 150w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/team_d4d6e6.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/team_d4d6e6.jpg?resize=768,512 768w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/team_d4d6e6.jpg?resize=680,453 680w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/team_d4d6e6.jpg?resize=1200,800 1200w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/team_d4d6e6.jpg?resize=1280,853 1280w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/team_d4d6e6.jpg?resize=430,287 430w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/team_d4d6e6.jpg?resize=720,480 720w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/team_d4d6e6.jpg?resize=900,600 900w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/team_d4d6e6.jpg?resize=800,533 800w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/team_d4d6e6.jpg?resize=1536,1024 1536w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/team_d4d6e6.jpg?resize=2048,1365 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 3000px) 100vw, 3000px\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Pydantic team<\/figcaption><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><strong>Image Credits:<\/strong> Pydantic<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-tried-and-tested\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Tried_and_tested\"><\/span>Tried and tested<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The typical trajectory for a startup building an open-source business looks something like this: Create an open source product that solves a real problem; that product gains traction with developers, becoming an indispensable tool in their stack; the startup creates commercial services and features on top of the core open-source project to make it even more useful.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s a tried and tested model, but the problem is that businesses are increasingly retreating from open source in one form or another, whether that\u2019s transitioning to a less-permissive license <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/grafana.com\/blog\/2021\/04\/20\/grafana-loki-tempo-relicensing-to-agplv3\/\">as Grafana did<\/a>, or abandoning it altogether like HashiCorp did. The reasons are <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/general\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"3\" title=\"General\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">general<\/a>ly the same \u2014 it\u2019s all about protecting the company\u2019s bottom line, ensuring that larger companies don\u2019t take advantage of a product\u2019s open source credentials.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There\u2019s even a whole new licensing paradigm emerging to tackle the \u201cuse and abuse\u201d problem in open source. Billion-dollar developer tooling company Sentry is pushing the concept of \u201c<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/fair.io\/\">fair source<\/a>,\u201d as it seeks to align itself with \u201copen\u201d software without actually going open source. \u201cOpen source isn\u2019t a business model \u2014 open source is a distribution model, it\u2019s a software development model, primarily,\u201d\u00a0Sentry\u2019s head of open source, <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/chadwhitacre\/\">Chad Whitacre<\/a>, told TechCrunch in an interview last month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While using open source to ingratiate a company to the developer community is far from a novel concept, Pydantic is slightly unusual in that it\u2019s using its open-source project entirely as a marketing tool. So rather than trying to transform Pydantic itself into a commercially viable product, it\u2019s leaning on the project\u2019s gravitas to sell other, not-directly-related products instead \u2014 such as Logfire.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cInstead of building the hosted version of Pydantic, the library, we\u2019ve built Logfire, the observability platform,\u201d Colvin said. \u201cThe trust that we have as a company from the Python community is in a different league to many other companies. We went to <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/us.pycon.org\/2024\/\">PyCon US<\/a> this year just after we <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/samuel_colvin\/status\/1785321328070766858\">announced<\/a> Logire in beta, and our booth had a cluster of people around it all week because everyone knew the library and they knew us. Whereas, if we had turned up as a brand new observability company, people would have ignored us. Pydantic is a better-known brand than almost any other in the Python world, other than the big guys like AWS and Google.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"3160\" height=\"1842\" src=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Screenshot-2024-09-25-at-15.27.01.png?w=680\" alt=\"Pydantic's Logfire in action\" class=\"wp-image-2887631\" srcset=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Screenshot-2024-09-25-at-15.27.01.png 3160w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Screenshot-2024-09-25-at-15.27.01.png?resize=150,87 150w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Screenshot-2024-09-25-at-15.27.01.png?resize=300,175 300w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Screenshot-2024-09-25-at-15.27.01.png?resize=768,448 768w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Screenshot-2024-09-25-at-15.27.01.png?resize=680,396 680w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Screenshot-2024-09-25-at-15.27.01.png?resize=1200,699 1200w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Screenshot-2024-09-25-at-15.27.01.png?resize=1280,746 1280w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Screenshot-2024-09-25-at-15.27.01.png?resize=430,251 430w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Screenshot-2024-09-25-at-15.27.01.png?resize=720,420 720w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Screenshot-2024-09-25-at-15.27.01.png?resize=900,525 900w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Screenshot-2024-09-25-at-15.27.01.png?resize=800,466 800w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Screenshot-2024-09-25-at-15.27.01.png?resize=1536,895 1536w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Screenshot-2024-09-25-at-15.27.01.png?resize=2048,1194 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 3160px) 100vw, 3160px\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Pydantic\u2019s Logfire in action<\/figcaption><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><strong>Image Credits:<\/strong> Logfire<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Logfire is basically a Datadog competitor, designed to give developers insights into how their software is performing. But Pydantic wants to make the whole observability process simpler to configure. It wants to be \u201cto Datadog what Vercel is to AWS,\u201d as Colvin put it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAWS has an enormous amount of functionality and it\u2019s incredibly complex to use,\u201d he said. \u201cDatadog is also an enormously complex piece of kit, so we\u2019re trying to build a simpler experience for developers. Longer term, we want it to be so that you could go and use this [Logfire] in place of Datadog. But in the medium term, we want to be that simpler solution for smaller teams.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s certainly an interesting approach to building a business \u2014 the startup is essentially using Logfire to solve a different problem for the same people that use Pydantic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThey are different things, but where they overlap is that all the people who need Pydantic, the validation library, also need observability,\u201d Colvin said. \u201cSo we\u2019re targeting a solution for the same people.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-show-me-the-money\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Show_me_the_money\"><\/span>Show me the money<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Back in the earlier days of Pydantic, Colvin managed to secure some <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/docs.pydantic.dev\/latest\/why\/#using-pydantic\">decent sponsorships<\/a> from some of the framework\u2019s biggest corporate users, including Salesforce, which donated $10,000 in 2022; AWS and GitHub sponsored $5,000 and $750, respectively.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But as the business has grown and VCs have entered the picture, corporate donations have grown less frequent.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019ve had reasonably generous sponsorships, but more so when I was working on my own,\u201d Colvin said. \u201cBut now that we\u2019re backed by Sequoia, people are less handy with their wallet!\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With Logfire now in general availability, Pydantic hopes to build on the 2,000-plus developers and 150 companies it attracted during the beta phase. It now has a heavy focus on AI companies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Aside from lead investor Sequoia, Pydantic\u2019s Series A round saw participation from Partech and Irregular Expression, alongside angels such as <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/logankilpatrick\/\">Logan Kilpatrick<\/a> and <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/jxnlco\">Jason Liu<\/a>. Colvin said the fresh cash will be used primarily for salaries, and to bolster its existing headcount of 13, which are spread around the U.S. and Europe.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019ll use the funds for hiring, mostly developers,\u201d Colvin said. \u201cWe\u2019ll probably hire for sales at some point, but for now, it\u2019s just engineering.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMN63nwsw68G3Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more like this article, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/technology\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Technology<\/a><\/span> category.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2024\/10\/01\/sequoia-backs-pydantic-to-expand-beyond-its-open-source-data-validation-framework\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A U.K.-based, open-source startup is launching its first commercial product with the backing of one of Silicon Valley\u2019s most renowned venture capital firms. Pydantic on Monday launched an observability platform called Logfire, five months after trialing it in open beta, and announced $12.5 million in Series A funding led by Sequoia. However, the company is&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":640154,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/colvin.webp?resize=1200,675","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[77337,75885,152130,152131,74839,152132,152133,152022,151477],"class_list":["post-640153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-ai","tag-enterprise","tag-data-observability","tag-data-validation","tag-fundraising","tag-open-source-project","tag-pydantic","tag-sequoia","tag-venture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=640153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}