What do you think the future of software looks like?
The easy, and boring, answer is AI-LLMs-Copilots-Agents-LanguageInterfaces-handwaving-something-or-other. The more interesting answer is in more questions—what will the next generation of builders create and how will the next generation of users consume? When they imagine the future, what do they see?
We caught a glimpse of that future when Mies, the founder of Fiberplane, introduced us to Mustafa and Max. What they described they were building at Deta made me nostalgic. It took me back to my first shell account, my first experience of software on a command line and the early ethos of personal computing. A time when your data belonged to you, when applications were utilities that you could connect together instead of walled gardens that you have to ask permission (and pay a hefty tax) to really use but can never actually trust.
Beyond the thing that is Deta are the people using it. Thousands of them all over the world, who discover it through word of mouth, Reddit, HN, etc. On the whole, they are young people making new kinds of software for themselves and each other. They’re experimenting, iterating, and building at a rate I’ve never seen before. They’ve been unblocked by the sheer ease of creating and launching something on Deta, with or without writing code.
In every iteration of what they build, the Deta team creates delightful experiences for this next generation of developers. From the universal Teletype, a command line in a bar that can do everything from launching finding a file to creating a new fully functional application based on an AI prompt, to being able to see exactly what data someone else’s app uses and creates and stores when you use it—Deta is 100% oriented around you. Instead of being oriented around, frankly, themselves.
In 2021, when we took the idea of investing in Deta to our investment committee, here’s what I wrote in the memo:
“Deta is built on the ethos of the original web, essentially decentralized with everyone having their own space, controlling their own data, and only interacting with people and services of their own choosing.”
“This new generation is international, anti-centralized-control-by-megacorps, and very data/privacy conscious. Their primary concern is not technology, but being able to create/consume on their own terms.”
In the Detaverse, you are not considered a product. You are not a bank account that happens to be attached to a human being. You are at the center of your space, your apps, and your data. Deta Space is your new home on the web.
We are very proud to have led Deta’s $3.6 Million Seed round alongside System.One, Tomahawk.VC, Tiny.VC, Angel Invest, Acequia Capital, NPHard, and founders and early employees from companies like NGINX and Notion.
Read more about the launch of Deta Space on their blog. And have a look at what’s been written about the future the team is building at The Verge, Fast Company, TechCrunch, and VentureBeat.