Mashery goes live...

Congratulations to Oren Michels and his team at  Mashery on their launch today. 

Mashery is a First Round Capital portfolio company that offers tools that make it simple to build, support, and manage access to web services, APIs and data.   Just as Feedburner makes it easier to syndicate/track/manage an RSS Feed, Mashery makes it easier to manage your API and developer program.  Mashery offers the only complete platform built specifically for this purpose, addressing the universal challenge that plagues all Web services companies - building and managing their developer network. 

In the last year I’ve seen that over a dozen of my portfolio companies have  had to create custom code to implement their developer program. With virtually every software company opening up APIs and offering web services, why should they all re-invent the wheel? 

Mashery provides metrics and reporting to track API usage, developer registration and key issuance, and comprehensive management of API access along with an integrated suite of community tools (forum/wiki/blog) to build a strong developer community.  Each developer network is built on proven tools and practices while retaining the client’s look, feel and culture.  An upcoming release will allow API owners to charge developers for access to their API -- and will handle the logistics/processes required for billing. 

More about Mashery's launch can be found on Techcrunch (I especially like their conclusion that Mashery has the potential "to be a key force in the realization of a future built of mashups") and ZDNet.

If you're going to be at the Web 2.0 Conference in San Francisco this week, be sure to stop by the Sonoma Room at the Palace Hotel to learn more.