Back to all companies
Sign in
Back to all companies
AP

Appjet

Summer 2007Acquired

Y Combinator funded AppJet is an online programming tool for building simple web apps. Founded by former MIT students, AppJet intends to simplify the process of writing web applications. The applications are programmed on a web based text editor in the simple but powerful JavaScript programming language. JavaScript is used on both the server and client side. They've included several bundles of code libraries for databases and more importantly interfacing with the Facebook API. In order to efficiently host users' applications, AppJet has developed their own application virtualization system. The system allocates processor time to active applications and cuts off greedy ones after running an alloted number of compiled lines of code to prevent abuse. AppJet as a dev platform seems no longer to be active. There are some legacy downloads available, however.

Save
AP

Appjet

Summer 2007Acquired

Y Combinator funded AppJet is an online programming tool for building simple web apps. Founded by former MIT students, AppJet intends to simplify the process of writing web applications. The applications are programmed on a web based text editor in the simple but powerful JavaScript programming language. JavaScript is used on both the server and client side. They've included several bundles of code libraries for databases and more importantly interfacing with the Facebook API. In order to efficiently host users' applications, AppJet has developed their own application virtualization system. The system allocates processor time to active applications and cuts off greedy ones after running an alloted number of compiled lines of code to prevent abuse.

AppJet as a dev platform seems no longer to be active. There are some legacy downloads available, however.

Save
Company details
Location
San Francisco, CA, USA
Founded
2007
YC Directory Pageappjet.com
Founder
  • DG
    David Greenspan
    Founder
    LinkedIn
Location
San Francisco, CA, USA
Founded
2007
YC Directory Pageappjet.com
Founder
  • DG
    David Greenspan
    Founder
    LinkedIn

Pressure-test this opportunity

Turn this teardown into a decision-ready prompt for ChatGPT, Claude, or your agent.

On this page
  • Overview
  • Founding Story
  • Timeline
  • What They Built
  • Market Position
  • Business Model
  • Traction
  • Post-Mortem
  • The acquisition succeeded, but the first closure plan failed users
  • Open source converted shutdown into continuity
  • The first platform exposed transition risk earlier
  • The durable asset was a focused capability
  • Key Lessons
  • Sources

This report was generated by our Deep Research agent and may contain mistakes.

Did we get something wrong? DM @oscrhong and we'll fix it ASAP!

Startups.RIP — Dead startups, alive ideas
PricingContactPrivacyGot feedback? DM @oscrhong
Exec Briefing

Actionable insights

If you only have a few minutes to spare, here’s what investors, operators, and founders should know about Appjet (S07).

  1. The showcase became the product. Real-time collaboration turned hard synchronization technology into an obvious user benefit.
  2. Acquisition did not erase user obligations. The first closure plan triggered opposition because hosted data and continuity still mattered.
  3. Open source changed the ending. Community pressure produced an Apache release that outlived both the hosted service and the acquirer's collaboration product.
  4. A repository is not a handoff. Exports, deployment guidance, governance, maintainers, dependencies, security ownership, and support determine continuity.

Overview

AppJet was a developer-platform and collaboration startup founded by David Greenspan, Aaron Iba, and J.D. Zamfirescu in 2007 and accepted into Y Combinator's Summer 2007 batch. It began as browser-based hosting for server-side JavaScript, tried a PHP pivot, then turned internal real-time synchronization technology into EtherPad.[1][2]

Google acquired AppJet on December 4, 2009 and moved the team into Google Wave. The price was not disclosed. Contemporary estimates placed it in the low eight figures, but those reports are not confirmed terms.

The hosted EtherPad service eventually closed, but user backlash changed the transition. AppJet restored pad creation, released EtherPad and its framework under Apache 2.0, and enabled community successors. The current Etherpad project preserves the real-time editing model and remains actively self-hosted.

Original AppJet logo
AppJet began as an attempt to make server-side web application development almost setup-free.

Founding Story

AppJet's archived company page names Greenspan, Iba, and Zamfirescu as a three-person executive team. All were MIT alumni; Iba and Zamfirescu had worked at Google. Greenspan specialized in virtual machines and JavaScript, Iba led front-end work and business, and Zamfirescu wrote the web server and persistent-storage system.

The founders wanted beginners and experienced developers to build simple web applications without configuring several languages and infrastructure layers. Iba described the frustration directly: “We were sick of all the hassle of setting up servers, configuring apache, installing MySQL and php and mod_whatever.”[3]

The public beta launched in December 2007. Developers wrote JavaScript in a browser editor, saved it, and published immediately to a hosted URL. AppJet supplied database and Facebook libraries, free hosting, and 10 MB of storage.[4] Source code was inspectable by other users, combining deployment with a learning environment.

The first platform tried to build both a web framework and a hosting service. YC later described this as attempting Rails and Heroku simultaneously, too much infrastructure and product for the startup's financing.[5] A second incarnation moved toward PHP, but YC said the founders disliked the work and abandoned it.

The third incarnation returned to JavaScript and exposed the team's difficult real-time synchronization libraries. EtherPad began as an internal tool and technology showcase. It became the company because users wanted collaborative editing more than a general development platform.

The packet contains only one direct founder quote. No second founder quotation about the pivot or acquisition surfaced, so one should not be reconstructed from secondary paraphrase.

Timeline

  • Summer 2007: AppJet entered Y Combinator.
  • December 12, 2007: The browser IDE and hosted server-side JavaScript platform launched publicly.
  • November 19, 2008: EtherPad launched as a real-time collaborative editor.[6]
  • July 1, 2009: Free AppJet application hosting ended so the team could focus on EtherPad.
  • September 3, 2009: EtherPad added its document-history time slider.[7]
  • December 4, 2009: Google acquired AppJet and moved the team into Google Wave.[8]
  • December 4-5, 2009: User opposition prompted a revised closure plan and an open-source commitment.
  • December 17, 2009: AppJet released EtherPad and its framework under Apache 2.0.[9]
  • April 14, 2010: The original hosted service stopped accepting new pads.
  • May 14, 2010: etherpad.com closed; independent services continued from the open source.[10]
AppJet and Google acquisition graphic
Google acquired AppJet for an undisclosed amount and assigned the team to real-time collaboration work in Google Wave.

What They Built

The original AppJet product was a browser-based editor, runtime, and hosting platform where JavaScript ran on both client and server. Its stack used the Java virtual machine, Mozilla's Rhino engine, and Scala libraries. Developers received an online editor, custom domains, tutorials, examples, storage, hosting, and a support forum.

Unlock the full Appjet teardown

Read the complete post-mortem, the rebuild playbook, and the exact reasons Appjet is still worth studying now.

See Pro plans