Streamlining the API Lifecycle: Interview with Startups of The Year 2024 Nominee, Ambassador

Hey Hackers–Ambassador has been nominated in HackerNoon's annual Startups of The Year awards in Denver, Colorado, here in the US.

Please vote by clicking the link in the blog description below on Hackernoon’s site under the Trending Denver, CO Startups.

Help Blackbird Soar: Why Ambassador Deserves Your Vote for Startup of the Year

We deserve your vote because we’re changing the game of API lifecycle development to put the power back in the hands of developers. Read on and let us convince you.

Ambassador offers a suite of products designed to deliver API developer experiences that fuel innovation. These products, Blackbird API Development Platform (now featuring Telepresence too) and Edge Stack API Gateway accelerate development, expedite testing, and optimize the delivery of API resources. Founded in 2014, Ambassador is a remote company backed by top investors, including Insight Partners and Four Rivers Group.

Whether managing an influx of gateway traffic, testing code in a complex containerized environment, or developing a collection of APIs for a new service, Ambassador has tools designed to let developers work where and how they want to work and eliminate the pain of collaboration, reviews, and testing.

Why Does This Matter?

• Increased Development Demands: As development demands accelerate, new tools are needed to keep up with the increasing complexity of today’s computing environments. Teams are expected to deliver faster and more frequent releases and manage increasing traffic ‌all while improving quality and reducing risk. We focus on cutting through typical friction points to ease collaboration and enable more self-serve experiences.

• Reducing Risk by Beefing up Security and Standardization: Inconsistent, unknown, or unfollowed processes multiply risk, especially as it relates to software development. Companies cannot afford to miss steps that help ensure compliance and consistency, and not to mention cost savings that comes with that. We focus on building tools that streamline innovation and reduce risk because we understand that even the best guidelines are easily ignored. By empowering developers with the tools they want AND removing the obstacles they don’t, we reduce the margin for error.

The evolution of Ambassador

Ambassador has evolved over the years. You may know us as Ambassador Labs or Dayawire (which is still our legal name). We have built on our expertise in Kubernetes-native development tools to be a leader in API development and operations for today's modern architectures. Originally known for tools like Telepresence and Edge Stack, and even Emissary Ingress before that, in 2021 under the vision of new CEO Steve Rodda, we realized we were destined for greater things. Recognizing the growing complexity of modern API workflows, in late 2024, we launched Blackbird, an advanced API development platform that streamlines design to delivery. With a strong emphasis on efficient development environments, developer productivity, and seamless API iteration, we’re continuing to push the envelope on microservices innovation (and we’re still K8s friendly too!).

Milestones and achievements

• Edge Stack API Gateway awarded Best Microservices API at API World 2023
• Blackbird awarded best in API Design and Coding tools at API World 2024
• Blackbird recognized as Intellyx 2024 Digital Innovator
• Blackbird recognized as Gartner Magic Quadrant Honorable Mention in the 2024 API Management reports

What startups of the year means to us

Winning Startup of the Year would be a huge validation of our mission to revolutionize API development and empower developers with the tools they need to build faster and smarter. It would recognize the hard work and innovation our team has put into Blackbird, proving that streamlining the API lifecycle is a game-changer for engineering teams. Most importantly, it would fuel our momentum, helping us reach more developers and continue pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in modern software development.

Help us fly to new heights

We would love your vote because we’re truly a team of believers in a developer-centric path forward. We believe in utilizing AI as an innovation booster (and you should have the capacity to do more with it too!). We don’t shy away from the cutting-edge tools and technologies but we also want to protect the developer experience. Our new platform, Blackbird offers a modular approach to API lifecycle development to meet developers where they’re at. We believe we’ve managed to tackle one of the biggest challenges in modern software development—streamlining the API lifecycle from design to delivery—without the complexity that slows teams down. Winning this award would recognize not only our technical breakthroughs but also our impact on developer productivity worldwide.