Understanding the API Economy – Iddo Gino, CEO, Rapid

This is Textron TV. Hi everybody, Mike Rothman here with another interview for Tech strong TV. I'm really excited to be joined by Edo Gino who is the founder and CEO of Rapid?

You may know them as rapid API that come through a whole rebranding and probably pay to Crap ton of money for a new domain and that's the way things work, you know in today's world. You gotta you got to have the domain in order for it to be real, you know, welcome to the show. How are you today?

Good. com. com.

All right, so I didn't I didn't mean to you know, some other rapid company Rapid comes be like, we're always API people coming, you know find us from that sandwich. com and we'll do that contact information, you know later on so, you know, welcome to the show. Hey, why don't you explain?

I know you were on the show a little while back but once you kind of refresh everybody's memories about you your background, I know that's pretty interesting as well as what the company is about what problems you're trying to solve? Yeah, definitely and it's it's great to be back on the show and have a conversation today, you know see you on founder of Rafferty Pi now rapid I still trip over that a little bit. I you know spend the last six years building rapid and today we kind of The largest API Hub in the world helping developers discover and connect to public apis and also helping organizations, you know the point where they have hundreds or thousands of different apis that they want to manage internally and kind of help their developers collaborate on but also exposed to Partners customers and third parties that kind of want to extend with their platform.

We help them set up their own API hubs where they can centralize and manage all those different apis. I actually started my career as a software developer at a you know been as a kid even pretty excited about building software building games building applications and was kind of exposed to this amazing world of you know, apis is really becoming the fundamental building blocks for software and seeing the power that apis have an empowering developers to create software faster and create much stronger software and that's what kind of led me down this path of building the we always say if apis are the Lego pieces where the LEGO store so building the Lego store for for apis. Yeah, now that that's a great way to kind of describe it because you know, and I've been doing software for a long long time, right, you know and and you know nowadays it's less about you know, kind of building the software and more about assembling different pieces from you know, a bunch of different Public Services.

Obviously open source libraries are big cloud native infrastructure, but you know kind of integrating all these things together the you know, kind of apis really seems to be the way that that applications are going at this point. So what are some of the problems that folks will run into you know, kind of when they first start dip in their toes into API Centric, you know, architecture and and design and development that you know, rapid is helping to solve. Yeah, and I think to your point you're actually spun like we we talk a lot about how softer these less about building from scratch and writing code from scratch and it's more about composing different pieces of software, you know be it Cloud infrastructure open source libraries and a lot more now apis and connecting to existing services and this is going to where you see the developers now spending 30 to 50% of their time doing API Integrations in their application.

So it's taking a more and more of their work is actually invested in building on apis. It's also to a pretty great extent becoming a requirement because is that complexity of software increases and you see consumers becoming more more demanding and what they expect software to be doing you have to be able to leverage apis because you just couldn't build to those requirements and fulfill those requirement from scratch. We're even seeing that you know Ai and you know things like GPT free and machine learning or becoming you know, right now there's still very hip and new I bet you in a few months or a few orders integrating with AI.

Having AI capabilities and application is going to become table sticks. It's going to become something that everyone needs to do. You can't build that from scratches as an individual developer's or even as a small to medium startup.

So integrating with apis that gave you those those Technologies and those superpowers is gonna be something that you have to do but kind of back to those 30 to 50% of the time the developers use on building an integrating with apis we in a natural make it easier to discover the right apis. So kind of the the search engine around apis make it easier to see the documentation and understand how those apis work and we always quantify it. If you're kind of familiar with the API lingo when you make a successful API request you get a 200 Response Code.

So with rapid we are really focus on making sure that that time 200 or how long it takes to developers to make a successful request as short as possible and that empowers developers to be more more productive and then helping organizations Better think when you know where they're suddenly relying on a hundreds to thousands of apis what those apis how how they're performing. And were there any security or compliance gaps that need to think about? That that's exactly right.

Right. So I've spent you know, the bulk of my career worrying about how people are gonna get killed every day using technology, right? Not literally but you know coming from an attacks the employment and and that's the thing that really strikes me looking at it from an application security and and compliance perspective which is you know, I'm integrating all of those, you know different kind of components that that are there.

I don't know where they're coming from. I don't know what code is in there. I don't know what you know, if I send data to it, I don't know, you know, ultimately what's gonna come back.

So, you know that fitting process ultimately becomes very important as you're in starting to deal with customer data, right and starting a leverage, you know, some of these, you know newfangles Services, you mentioned API our AI right, you know, that's you know, that's really cool. So that's something you can do with, you know, having the machines, you know, kind of taking a look at it that's up and assembling information a lot faster. That's great.

But you got to give it a seed right and what is that seed actually result in you know, so the whole compliance and security thing is that I think is absolutely critical to continue to build trust within you know, the whole API economy. Yeah, and I mentioned to you when we're kind of chatting before this this show. I just came back from a conference in Paris and API days and I got to speak to a lot of Technology leaders and kind of architecture leaders in a lot of large European companies and you know, they're very concerned about gdpr and data sovereignty and the kind of where the data of their users go and a lot of them are not realizing, you know, when you kind of have developers just going after adopting epis you that actually creates a huge liability where you don't know where those apis are running.

You don't know what they're complaint with and even internally there I've talked to a few companies where there are multinationals and they have you know, maybe say European sub, but they're trying to rely on integrate better with their kind of global parent company, but they also need to worry about where that leader resides. So all of a sudden creating observability and having a system of record and a source of Truth around we're the apis and who's where the API connections happening is becoming really critical for them. Yep, and not so so rapid has Solutions in in that area.

You know how people validate you know, kind of the where the apis are where the data ends up being and and how do you actually go? Do you have a process to vet these things? I mean with thousands and thousands of apis that are listed, you know kind of within your environment.

You know, how do you go again QA may not be the right term but but validate right that these API companies are doing or these API Publishers are doing the right stuff with the data. Yeah, so sorry or in our public Hub. You know, it's it's an open platform.

So anyone can go published selling API there we do have processes around and you can kind of see them with some tags and on apis that we have things like official so we actually make sure and we work to connect that apis. This is an officially API. Created by the original kind of API Creator who claims the brand and then verified where we checked they comply with a bunch of stuff.

We also let them publish their gdpr compliance in our platform but more interestingly because that's just our kind of public open Hub right with our Enterprise have when we bring that platform into the enterprise. We actually put Enterprise decision makers in a position to approve which apis can go into their own internal Hub in which con. So under one hand you want to make sure that we validate all those apis and have you know, maybe your own organizational screening around with apis or fit for you to use but once one but then once you do that, you can put that on an internal Hub and make sure everyone knows hey this EPA has already been approved.

So if you want to use that you don't have to go through the whole rigamore again just go use that API we're signed off on that which makes the developers a lot more productive. Yeah now that's right. That's right.

It may say saves time improves, you know security of the entire environment, you know, definitely win for you know, the developers on that front. So that's great. So, you know you talk about you guys made a lot of progress this year.

Let's kind of look to the Future a little bit right because we're at the end of the year and you know, by the time this post will probably be you know, kind of very early in 2023, right? So what do you expecting? You know, we're obviously more API or more apis tomorrow that are used today.

So that's an obvious one. Right? But, you know in terms of some of the other areas when you think they'll be Innovation or you know, maybe constraints that that customers are gonna have to start to deal with you know, what do you really see happening in 2023 relative to apis?

Yeah, so let me go get my crystal ball. Well, tell me how the stock market's gonna do too while you're at it. I'd love to know that it's either gonna do better or worse than that here.

I am pretty sure it's gonna be good that area. I know there's been a couple of trends that you know that we've been looking at I think that the biggest kind of thing that we're seeing is the API economy is taking over the the kind of Greater economy. And you know that we kind of tag it as a tagline of every company is becoming an APK company, but but really what what we've been tracking is this really interesting Trend where as you look across markets, you see this bifurcation between companies that are working on deep infrastructure and providing that infrastructure is apis and companies.

We kind of call them consumerizers and just a completely made up word, but that actually take those apis and create beautiful consumer experiences on top of them and you know a few examples that I give to actually dimensionalize this, you know, I use apple card all the time Apple has its phenomenal Financial product, but they didn't actually create a credit card offering Goldman sucks as all the financial infrastructure. They just consumerize it and made it into a beautiful experience same thing with Robinhood and stock trading. It's backed by, you know coming over that do all the stock.

Brokering under the hood. They just create a great consumer experience around it. You see even see startups again.

We talked about AI like Jasper who actually delivered B2B sass use a bunch of of different kind of AI API providers under the hood. So I think that you know, a lot of companies are thinking about our industry is going to turn into an API industry. We're either using apis relying on apis and consumerizing them or we're the API providers and you see a lot of Legacy companies like insurance company, like financial services companies like healthcare companies really focusing on creating apis because they realize hey we might not be the best anymore to consumerizing this we're going to be the the next instructors but those disruptors are going to build their Solution on top of our apis and actually becoming an API in for a player is where we can be the French that unique and kind of get those those gross margins.

Yep. Yep. No that that's interesting.

Right because you know and you see the Innovation on both sides of it, you know, whereas you have a lot of new types of customer interactions that are enabled by having all of these services on the back end, right and then the company can innovate faster or get to Market more expediently because they don't have to build a lot of the infrastructure kind of like when you know startups just started adopting, you know, Cloud infrastructure like well, I'm not gonna spend the time to build my own data center. I'll just use a cloud platform and that enabled them to get out of that business. Now, you have a number of other, you know types of ideas that are one step we're moved from that relative to not having to you know handle a lot of the messiness and you know, the data analysis or data, you know kind of governance aspect of that but really just accessing, you know, those Services, you know be the API world and then you know the back end which is how do I live in this world where again?

I'm dealing with Legacy systems right that I can't you know change quickly enough. Can I provide some access to you know, either the Are the intellectual property that you know, we spent dozens if not Decades of years, you know kind of building out and enabling that so but that bifurcation right that would seem to be scary to a lot of different companies, right? You know, my gonna be at the front end who controls the customer.

I mean, there's a lot of business, you know, kind of model issues along those lines, but in terms of the technology layer that's going to enable that I agree, you know, 100% that you know, kind of it is gonna be API driven and that creates again issues in terms of accessing, you know managing and ultimately leveraging, you know these apis within your code. Yeah, and I think you kind of mentioned that we've kind of been already on that Trend with the cloud transition and you know companies definitely thinking along the lines of what are the differentiator. This is what we're gonna build is what we're gonna do best everything else.

We're going to Outsource and I feel that now especially when you kind of money is getting more expensive capital is constrained. We're kind of entering this recessionary environment. Companies are you know pressure to think even more where can we be more efficient?

And what are the things like this is you know, what's the unique differentiator that we have to excel in and what's everything else that we can Outsource and we're seeing a lot of that Outsourcing happening vapis. Yep. Yep.

So anything you can tell us about kind of the plans for for Rapids platform in 2023 in terms of new areas you're thinking about or you know kind of bolstering some of the capabilities that you brought the market in 2022. Yeah, definitely. So, you know with rapid.

Our focus is always been and remains an on creating the best platform for developers to discover connect when consume apis and empowering developers to use apis better. There are a couple of things that we're doing. To kind of extend that all of them are things that we've kind of started and brought to Market this year and we're extending going into next year a big investment for us is in our API studio.

So we open developers create better apis, so kind of focusing whenever whether we were in the public Harbor and Enterprise habits always an intersection point between API consumers and providers, we've invested a lot in that consumer experience. And you know, I think they were by far the best place for a developers to consume apis. We're also quickly becoming a really great platform developers to build apis.

So if our API Studio where you can design develop test apis create monitoring and then publish and monetize them into our Hub. We're also we also brought a lot of that experience into Visual Studio code. So they in a few months.

We already kind of got the point where you can cater over 100,000 developers who use our studio experience in Via code and basically can build do all their API design construction testing and all that stuff through via scope of our ever living that platform and I think the community really loves that tool. Next year, we're going to make that even more fully featured and then we've Enterprise we are, you know, we're saving some of the largest we're serving some of the largest companies in the world. We're going to continue investing in kind of governance and observability capabilities for them.

So helping them as you kind of set understand the risks and the exposure that they have with the apis that they're using and exposing. Yep, and and security I would guess goes along with that too. And there are a number of companies that are in that space.

We do a whole mess of work and and research around there too. But still a huge emerging opportunity. I think it's a matter that most folks don't know how exposed they are when they start playing around with apis.

So, you know kind of continuing to invest in that aspect will be certainly appreciated, you know, but by the broad folks from be I can beat the drum only so much man, you know, you guys have a lot of visibility into the developers as well. Yeah, and I think that's right on it. It's that kind of visibility and awareness because there's great tools out there that provide, you know, a lot of complex modeling around API security and API protection where we've kind of seen some of companies struggle as an adopting those tools because they don't even know where those apis are and that, you know, like a combined train.

We're real companies build our system of record and identify where the aps are and then you can come and slap in all the security tooling. Of that. Yeah, you know and and I think just, you know kind of thinking out loud here, right, you know, a lot of good ends up being kind of unempowerment standpoint rights that the security team isn't necessarily empowered to get deep into the applications and understand where the apis are the development team.

And even the operations team, right? They don't really understand a lot of the ramifications of how they're composing and building a bunch of their applications. So collaboration I think is is you know, kind of critical on that front.

They'll always be audit out there but, you know really kind of at the point of development, you know, being able to you know access again vetted, you know, kind of compliant apis and information services that you know handle my data with the right jurisdictions and the like, I mean, I think that you know again that's going to be increasingly important because in this kind of environment you do have to do more with less you do want to be Global right and and a lot of these Global theaters, you just have different rules in terms of how you you know, and access and Le. Customer data. So again, I think that's great stuff to you know, kind of be out out front, you know working with the developers because they're the ones that really have to put this stuff into practice.

Yeah, and I think that also wants a lot of companies kind of build those platform and empowers them to do a lot more of apis. I mean one of the partners that we've recently been talking a lot about our relationship with his poly formerly known as this polycom and you know, they have been by layering in a lot of these platforms able to actually create a developer first ecosystem and expose now a lot of their APS developers and you know, we're very proud to be partnering with them and being part of the journey with them, but it's really interesting to see how every business given the right platforming and Technologies can actually transform into an API business. That's right.

That's right. Now it'll be interesting to see I'm excited for 2023. I'll be you know, I don't know much but I think there'll be more Cloud.

I think they'll be more apis and I think they'll be more innovate. So that's a good spot to be in and you know, you're you're playing in all three of those different areas. So, you know, how do people find you guys and I mean we talk about at the beginning of the show too, but you know kind of had a folks find you and you know, what what should they do when they get there?

Rapid API calm or rapid API on Google, you know best way to find Rapid API. I would encourage anyone to sign up start playing around with some of the apis. You can build amazing stuff with, you know, the APS and the data we have in our platform and I'll definitely encourage anyone if you're interested in learning more about kind of standing up your own API Hub and in your organization publishing and monetizing your AP as in our public platform or you know, anything else that we can be helpful with feel free to reach out to us.

It's all over the the website and and our platform and you know, we're happy to kind of work with companies and leaders to be part of that Journey. Fantastic. Well, you know I want to thank you again at the end of the year taking some time to chat with the folks at techstrong TV.

I'm really appreciate that time wish you and and everyone at a rapid a fantastic holiday and again get ready because 2023 should be pretty interesting. Yeah, I I agree with that. Thank you for taking the time for the interview and enjoy the holidays.

You that all right. We'll head back to the studio.