The Caspio Story
Caspio was incorporated in March 2000, but its story began a few years earlier. For the sake of brevity, let's just say that Frank Zamani, our founder, encountered too many development projects that fundamentally seemed the same but had to be custom-programmed one line of code at a time. At AT&T, Microsoft, and even at his own company Autoweb.com, Frank witnessed firsthand the enormous amount of time and resources that these internal apps consumed. He had an idea to remedy the situation.
What if instead of writing code, one could state the expectations from the app and let the software create software? Sounds too ambitious? Frank didn't think so. In early 2000, Caspio was formed. The goal was to enable non-developers to create apps with "point-and-click" instead of programming.
Typically, a database is at the core of any business app. Logically, Caspio had to begin with a web-based database. Rather than building a database from scratch, Caspio chose Microsoft SQL Server for scalability and compatibility with industry standards. However, it was also important to provide an intuitive web-based interface that eliminated many of the complexities of working with databases. The result was a highly-reliable cloud (i.e. hosted) database that was comprehensible for tech-savvy business users.
The next step was to develop the app-building tools. Instead of a drag-and-drop system, Caspio opted for a wizard approach that proactively directs the user through the application creation workflow, thereby ensuring no critical step is overlooked. In early 2001, Caspio Bridge Version 1 was released to an enthusiastic reception from the webmaster and web designer community.
When the dotcom bubble burst in 2000 and dragged many tech companies down, we reconsidered our growth plans. We felt that in order to build a customer-focused company, we had to structure our company so that it is not dependent on external financing, and thus driven by investment goals. Unlike the great majority of Silicon Valley companies, we decided to bootstrap Caspio. Over the years, we have remained committed to our ideals. We have been running a strong, profitable and growing company for years now, and have navigated more economic downturns without ever having to lay off a single employee.
Caspio is based in Mountain View, California. Our team is a highly diverse group of people, each with their own fascinating story, aspirations and achievements. We have the privilege of serving several thousand of companies. We consider their trust in us an honor and work every day to be deserving of that trust. We do not rest on our laurels but continuously strive to improve by investing in technology and training. We are here for the long haul and intend to deliver value for decades to come. Trust us with your online database and online application needs. You won't be disappointed.
