Zesty.io
Company typePrivate
IndustrySoftware as a Service, Content Management Systems
Founded2010
HeadquartersSan Diego, California
Key people
Randy Apuzzo (Founder, CEO, CTO)
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Zesty.io is a decoupled SaaS (Software as a Service) cloud-based Web Content Management System that allows companies to create, deploy, maintain, and optimize enterprise web properties.[1][2] It is specifically designed for mid-market and enterprise brands. It is built on globally available Google Cloud Platform infrastructure and, as a SaaS product, requires no hardware or software resources. Zesty.io also allows for collaborative website building and for users to manage multiple web properties from a single portal.[3]

History

Pre-Zesty.io

Founders Randy Apuzzo and Andy Fleming created Zesty.io as a way to "meet the unique needs of businesses, but also to address the changing needs of the web development community."[4][5][6] Headquartered in San Diego, Apuzzo and his team at Variable Action built Zesty.io to solve what they perceived to be a recurring problem for businesses’ web presence, which according to them was that “enterprises were either stuck with a professional website that they couldn’t control, or they had to create a do-it-yourself website that lacked the professional design and functionality essential for business growth.”[7] After three years in private development, Zesty.io made its official debut in 2010.[8]

Early investors of Zesty.io include Andy Ballester, co-founder of GoFundMe, Taner Halicioglu, co-founder of Seed San Diego and creator of Facebook hardware infrastructure, and Dave Hagewood, CEO at Psyonix, maker of popular game publisher Rocket League.[9] Zesty.io has also earned startup acceleration grants from Google.[9]

2017

In December 2017, Zesty.io announced a raise of $1.5M led by ClearVision Equity Partners, a micro-cap equity firm.[10]

At that same time, Gerry Widmer became CEO of Zesty.io while founder Apuzzo transitioned into the Chief Technical Officer (CTO) role.[11] Zesty.io has raised $2.8 million in funding total. Widmer, who joined Zesty.io in 2015, was previously general manager of BlueHornet, an enterprise software-as-a-service email platform and division of then-publicly traded company Digital River.[11]

Future

“Imagine robots publishing websites; this is where we are headed,” envisions Apuzzo. “However, artificial intelligence, machine learning, augmented reality and robotics will not replace the value of human involvement and oversight. These imminent technology advances are destined for the Zesty.io platform. They will further enable developers, designers and marketers to automate the creation, distribution and management of content, thus cost-efficiently increasing content volume, speed to market, quality control and security.”[9]

Platform

All content on Zesty.io lives in an instance. Zesty.io allows content to be managed as itself (function as a headless CMS). Zesty.io can also power web properties.[12] Content managed in a Zesty.io instance can be delivered to multiple devices with different screen sizes and display optimally.[13] The platform creates responsive enterprise websites that are automatically optimized for search engines.[14][15] Zesty.io also integrates with a variety of CRM systems with API access, such as Salesforce, Netsuite, MailChimp, Marketo, and Hubspot. Its mobile API also enables users to deploy content to mobile apps, IoT devices, and other connected devices.[16]

Zesty.io also supports multisite management.[12] The multisite view allows users to manage multiple instances from one portal. The platform deploys web properties to cloud infrastructure and a global Content Distribution Network. Zesty.io’s multisite supports functionality for users to share media within and among instances and web properties, as well as duplicate, share, and repurpose templates.

Zesty.io multi site management integrates with major analytics platforms such as Google Analytics to provide multi-site traffic analytics, user behavior tracking, as well as the ability to export data collected to other marketing platforms.[12][17]

Deployment and Support

Because Zesty.io is a cloud platform, updates deploy automatically as new releases become available. As a SaaS platform, it is “versionless and infrastructure-less.”[12] Deployment of new language, platform or infrastructure changes, and feature updates are automatic as well.[12] Users can seek support in Zesty.io’s developer Slack channel, finding FAQs in their documentation, or by emailing the company’s support directly.

Security

Zesty.io runs on a multi-tenant cloud infrastructure with a global content delivery network. The infrastructure is built on Google Cloud Platform along with a global CDN hosted with Fastly. It uses a closed-source code base and cloud infrastructure is designed to protect front-facing web content from hackers and DDoS attacks. DDoS mitigation is delivered through Fastly or CloudFlare’s content delivery network. Google Cloud Platform loadbalancers use anycast to distribute traffic to nearby servers, which greatly diffuses the potency of DDoS attacks by preventing the attackers from focusing their traffic on a single system on the Internet.[18] Zesty has had a 99.995% uptime for the last 4 years.[citation needed] For security purposes, users have the options to enable two-factor authentication powered by Twilio’s 2FA product Authy, as well as the ability to create and designate specific admin permissions and controls.[19]

Integrations

Zesty.io provides integrations to most major marketing technologies,[20] including

Templating Language

Zesty.io uses templating language Parsley.[20] Parsley is used to power Zesty.io’s schema based contextual coding. Parsley is used to create the presentation layer, and run routing for websites. It includes a full API Index.[21] Similar to other templating languages, Parsley uses double french brackets, (( )), to open and close template expressions. Inside these brackets a developer can use Parsley functions, reference content schema properties, and write JavaScript statements. These templating expressions are written alongside standard HTML. Parsley works to optimize each call and statement to expedite loading times for content on Zesty.io even though it is dynamic.

References

  1. ^ "Company Profile: Zesty.io". CMS Wire. Simpler Media Group, Inc.
  2. ^ Mandese, Joe. "Content Management Demystified: A Q&A With CMS Expert Randy Apuzzo". Media Post. Media Post. Retrieved 13 December 2015.
  3. ^ Mezaros, George. "How to Transition From a Consulting Business to a Product Business with Randy Apuzzo". Success Harbor. Success Harbor. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
  4. ^ Mesker, Amber. "Kickass entrepreneur: Zesty". DiscoverSD.com. Discover SD. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
  5. ^ McKenna, John. "Rackspace Startup Program Spotlight On Variable Action: Smart Software, Faster Websites". The Rackspace Blog! And Newsroom. The Rackspace. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
  6. ^ "Featured USD Experts: Justine Rapp". USD News Center. University of San Diego. Retrieved 22 November 2015.
  7. ^ "San Diego Entrepreneur Day Workshop Schedule". San Diego Entrepreneur Day. San Diego Entrepreneur Day. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
  8. ^ Ismail, Kaya (16 September 2015). "An Interview with Zesty's Co-Founder & CEO Randy Apuzzo". CMS Critic. CMS Critic. Retrieved 16 December 2015.
  9. ^ a b c "'Content Rules the World' Startup Zesty.io Tops Off $2.8 Million to Advance Web CMS Innovation". Retrieved 2018-07-17.
  10. ^ Freeman, Mike. "San Diego's Zesty.io raises $1.5 million for web content platform". sandiegouniontribune.com. Retrieved 2018-07-17.
  11. ^ a b "Zesty.io gets More Seed Money, Shuffles C-Suite". San Diego Business Journal. Retrieved 2018-07-17.
  12. ^ a b c d e Ismail, Kaya (12 August 2015). "Zesty.io: Rivalling Traditional Enterprise CMS With Lean SaaS". CMS Critic. CMS Critic. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
  13. ^ Jennewein, Chris (7 January 2016). "Five Questions for a San Diego Startup: Zesty.io". Five Questions for a San Diego Startup: Zesty.io - Times of San Diego. Times of San Diego. Retrieved 8 February 2016.
  14. ^ Harman, Liz. "Getting to Know Your Professors: Justine Rapp". Inside USD. University of San Diego. Retrieved 22 November 2015.
  15. ^ "Zesty Incubator Program at University of San Diego (USD)". YouTube. YouTube. Retrieved 22 November 2015.
  16. ^ "Powerful and Flexible Native SaaS Content Management System". No. 5. CIO Review. February 5, 2016. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
  17. ^ Gardner, Jerimiah (2014). The Lean Brand: How Brand Innovation Transforms Organizations, Discovers New Value, and Creates Passionate Customers. San Diego, CA: Market by Numbers, LLC.
  18. ^ Bright, Peter (27 March 2013). "Spamhaus DDoS grows to Internet-threatening size". Ars Technica. Ars Technica. Retrieved 29 February 2016.
  19. ^ "Zesty.Io delivers a security-first approach with Twilio's two-factor authentication service | Twilio Customer Stories". Twilio Customer Stories. Retrieved 2018-07-17.
  20. ^ a b "Documentation". Developers. Retrieved 2018-07-17.
  21. ^ "Parsley Templating". Developers. Retrieved 2018-07-17.
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