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Thinking about "API companies", with a strong group of them in the @ycombinator demo days.
Thread and assessment of some of those companies:
Thread and assessment of some of those companies:
First - a company that has APIs ≠ an API company (at least for this thread).
We& #39;re specifically talking about companies whose core product is an API, focusing on offering a simplified service or access to developers.
We& #39;re specifically talking about companies whose core product is an API, focusing on offering a simplified service or access to developers.
Organizations that offer a product and expose produced data via API aren& #39;t in this definition. Those can certainly add a second way to monetize through an app program, but it& #39;s all about core competency.
A bank with an API
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="❌" title="Kreuzzeichen" aria-label="Emoji: Kreuzzeichen">
An EHR with an APIhttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="❌" title="Kreuzzeichen" aria-label="Emoji: Kreuzzeichen">
@Plaid, @stripe, @Redoxhttps://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✅" title="Fettes weißes Häkchen" aria-label="Emoji: Fettes weißes Häkchen">
A bank with an API
An EHR with an API
@Plaid, @stripe, @Redox
I& #39;m also not counting API infrastructure companies. They& #39;re selling to the aforementioned "data producers with APIs" and also to the API companies to be named. These companies offer API design, development, hosting, and documentation tools.
@Apigee, @thekonginc, @SwaggerHub
@Apigee, @thekonginc, @SwaggerHub
API companies can be broken into three basic categories:
Aggregators
Connectors
Simplifiers
API companies can be one or more of these.
(I& #39;m not tied to these names, so open to comments for better ones)
Aggregators
Connectors
Simplifiers
API companies can be one or more of these.
(I& #39;m not tied to these names, so open to comments for better ones)
Aggregators:
Data aggregators use publically available endpoints and frontends to provide a longitudinal view for a given entity, generally the consumer. They& #39;re heavy on reading data, but lack capabilities to write back to org
@Plaid, @Yodlee, @mX, @human_api, @1up_health
Data aggregators use publically available endpoints and frontends to provide a longitudinal view for a given entity, generally the consumer. They& #39;re heavy on reading data, but lack capabilities to write back to org
@Plaid, @Yodlee, @mX, @human_api, @1up_health
Aggregator API companies have a relentless focus on breadth and data normalization.
They differentiate by reaching the broadest set of organizations (or a set of organizations that is specific, like investment accounts). @Plaid, @Yodlee, etc all fighting to connect to 100%
They differentiate by reaching the broadest set of organizations (or a set of organizations that is specific, like investment accounts). @Plaid, @Yodlee, etc all fighting to connect to 100%
Once they have the breadth, they also have to have a relentless focus on data normalization to differentiate. A developer wants an API as a contract. If that contract varies, it& #39;s a suboptimal developer experience and some cognitive load.
Simple example: if a transaction API returns 2 years of history from @usbank, but only 1 year from @CapitalOne, there& #39;s a burden on the developing app to mitigate that difference.
You know it& #39;s an aggregator when the primary value prop is "you don& #39;t want to have to do this with 1000s of organizations, do you?" and the trust mechanism for data access is consumer authentication.
To be continued
