Today marks a big day for two very successful companies, and I got the chance to sit down with SmartBear CEO, Frank Roe, and Bugsnag CEO and co-founder, James Smith.
Tim: For those who perhaps haven’t already seen this morning’s press release, why don’t we kick things off by having you share this morning’s news.
Frank: Sure, Tim. I’m thrilled to announce that we’ve signed an agreement to acquire Bugsnag—the leader in error monitoring and application stability management solutions. Bugsnag is a perfect fit for SmartBear, for more reasons than one. There’s a lot for our employees, Bugsnag’s employees, and all of our customers to be excited about.
James: We’re really excited, too, Frank. With the backing of SmartBear, we’ll be able to continue to meet the growing market demand for stable, high-quality applications—especially as our customers are accelerating their software delivery cadence.
Tim: There are also some shared company missions and current trends that make this such a great fit. Could you touch on some of those?
James: Sure! In terms of current trends that we both recognize big opportunities within, one is around the evolution we’re seeing around quality assurance (QA) transforming into quality engineering. Our mission at Bugsnag has been to help teams accelerate the delivery of high-quality software; seeing that SmartBear shared that same desire made this a no-brainer.
Frank: That’s right. Bugsnag also helps augment and amplify our existing mission of being the first choice for developers and testers for quality-led app development. This acquisition adds a key piece to our portfolio—the delivery of app stability in production environments.
Tim: Last, but certainly not least, could you each talk about how the cultural fit between SmartBear and Bugsnag was a big part of how this partnership came to be.
James: The more I’ve gotten to know the SmartBear team, the more I’ve seen the strong cultural alignment that exists between our two teams. That definitely drives our excitement.
Frank: I’d like to double-down on that, because it’s really important. We have a long history of acquiring companies and really folding them into the SmartBear family. One of the keys to being able to do that is culture. It was really refreshing to see that you and everyone else there that we’ve met share a lot of the same ideals.
We’re really excited about the opportunities we have together to conquer this market. To that end, we’re looking forward to continuing our journey with Bugsnag as part of the SmartBear family. Congratulations, James, I look forward to working together!
James: Thank you, Frank. We’re super-excited.