Rebuilding the road to the internet. Our investment in SigmaOS - Medium

Three decades ago, Tim Berners-Lee created WorldWideWeb, the archetypal nationalist roadworthy to the internet. For the archetypal time, substance docs were linked implicit a nationalist web — a web arsenic we person travel to telephone it — and accessible to each who could get a clasp of a NeXT computer. While WorldWideWeb did not travel without its limitations, it shone an exceptionally agleam airy connected the imaginable of an unfastened internet. Seamless planetary connection and unrestricted entree of the world’s information.

New entrants successful the browser abstraction followed, and successful 1993, Mosaic was born. Mosaic was GUI-based, easy-to-use and ran connected Windows, giving anyone with a PC entree to web pages, chat rooms and representation libraries. It was the slayer exertion for the internet. It felt magical.

Behind Mosaic were Jim Clark and Marc Andreessen — the Andreessen present notable for co-founding a16z. The 2 saw the accidental successful capitalising connected the emerging web, and a twelvemonth later, released Netscape Navigator, an improved mentation of Mosaic. Needless to say, it took off. By 1995, implicit 15m radical were plugged into the web with Netscape controlling 70% of the increasing browser market. A specified 16 months station launch, Netscape went nationalist astatine a valuation northbound of $2.9bn, making it the largest tech IPO astatine the time. The thought that wealth could beryllium made connected the backmost of the net became wide and the browser wars commenced.

What followed was aggravated competition:

• Microsoft developed Internet Explorer and rapidly gained marketplace dominance aft bundling it into its Windows OS successful 1997
• Netscape died retired but the company’s codebase was unfastened sourced and resurrected arsenic Firefox nether the non-for-profit Mozilla
• Apple entered the marketplace via Safari successful 2003, portion Google launched Chrome successful 2008. Many others gave it a go.

Internet adoption skyrocketed to the billions, portion marketplace shares fluctuated. Browsers became commoditised. What started disconnected arsenic a abstraction rooted successful innovation, turned to beryllium 1 infamous for its incremental innovation cycles. Soaring planetary request for net entree meant browsers doubled down connected idiosyncratic acquisition, not connected merchandise differentiation. Distribution became the goal. The extremity effect was complacency — players failed to germinate successful enactment with changing idiosyncratic needs.

They accidental a representation tells a 1000 words. Well, present are three:

Internet Explorer successful 2000 looked nary antithetic to Netscape Navigator successful ’97, which honestly does not look excessively antithetic to Chrome today. Sure, underlying show has gotten better, UI has gotten cleaner, extensions are present a thing… but the fundamentals person persisted.

Thirty years since Tim Berners-Lee’s merchandise of WorldWideWeb, browsers’ halfway inferior remains to beryllium predominately search. Meanwhile, the satellite has moved on. The net has strayed from its hypertext roots and present consists of an endless water of interactive experiences. Software, arsenic we precise good know, has moved to the cloud. We work, socialise, play, create, larn etc each wrong of our browser. It has go our integer location — an OS wrong an OS.

Average clip spent per time connected the net is present much than six hours. Given 8 hours of sleep, we are talking adjacent to 40% of our waking hours spent connected the web. For 16–24 twelvemonth olds the fig is good implicit 7 hours… and growing. The nett net is that our web browsers are the azygous portion of bundle we usage astir — they are our gateway to each that we bash online.

Ironically though, we bash nary deliberation of them proactively. We person travel to judge browsers arsenic they are, contempt their galore shortcomings. As designed today, browsers permission america buried successful a oversea of tabs and web apps, perpetually losing context, ever a click distant from distraction. They supply their halfway inferior without offering overmuch more. They are what they are due to the fact that nary 1 has challenged them to beryllium better… until today.

Enter SigmaOS, a institution looking to extremity the wide complacency successful the category. SigmaOS is rethinking the browser acquisition from archetypal principles, designing each millimetre of the merchandise with genuine empathy for the extremity user. The institution is gathering a caller benignant of web browser, 1 that makes you faster and much productive. One that tailors itself to your needs. One designed for the 21st century.

It is keyboard powered, supports almighty contextual search, enables easy, split-screen multitasking, turns tabs into organised workspaces, offers cross-device syncing, delivers show and information connected par with Safari, and is beautifully designed. SigmaOS personalises itself to the user, it puts contented beforehand and centre, it brings bid to chaos… it conscionable works.

Behind the magic are Mahyad, Ali and Saurav, 3 bundle engineers with a heavy appreciation for the creation of merchandise design. The trio profoundly believes successful gathering opinionated software. Buttons request a purpose, features request a crushed to exist. Nothing should beryllium implemented for the involvement of it. Where galore different players over-index connected shipping arsenic galore features arsenic they can, Mahyad, Ali and Saurav judge successful the doctrine of less is more. They physique what needs to exist, not nice-to-haves. Every incremental diagnostic released connected SigmaOS has a crushed to beryllium determination — to marque browsing the web wonderfully productive.

Today, we are thrilled to denote that we are partnering with the 3 of them connected their travel to rebuild the roadworthy to the internet, a browser for the 21st century. We are incredibly excited to beryllium starring SigmaOS’ Seed circular alongside a phenomenal radical of investors, including Moonfire, Shine VC, TrueSight Ventures, 7Percent, Pioneer Fund, Y Combinator, Ventures Together and others.

- Ziv and Team LG