History

Phurnace Software was born in the fire of demanding development and I.T. shops. The founders had dealt with the challenges and heartaches of deploying software on application servers where errors were rampant, starting over was standard procedure, and work-around scripting was the order of the day. Their experiences showed how inefficient the current approach was: Simply put, it took way too much time. There were way too many errors. The installation documentation that needed to be written was complex and getting more so. And – there was no relaxing of the timeframes for implementations that had to be up and running. It was clear that there “must be a better way”.

While one of the founders was attending an executive MBA program in the evenings and working in a software development shop by day, he decided to attack the deployment challenges he and others were facing. As part of his MBA program he crafted the business plan for Phurnace Software with a trusted associate who was a master at developing reliable JavaEE™ software. Together they built the product and the beginnings of the company. The business plan was so compelling and complete that it won the University of Texas Moot Corp competition. The competition has graduate students present their plans to actual investors to be judged on the viability and potential of their ideas. The flame had been lit, so to speak.

Phurnace Software then moved into the nationally-recognized Austin Technology Incubator (ATI), a company-forming incubator, run by the University of Texas. At ATI, Phurnace focused on researching the market needs, refining the product capabilities and securing early customers. In August of 2007, Phurnace raised its first professional seed capital from DFJ Mercury (a Houston-based early stage fund affiliated with Draper Fisher Jurvetson Ventures). In July of 2008, Phurnace completed its Series A fund raising with an investment led by S3 Ventures, a Texas-based technology and medical device venture firm.

At Phurnace, our commitment is to our customers. It always has been, it always will be.