We started Drifting in Space because we believe that browser-based software can feel like magic if it’s built with the right tools.

The browser has become the default platform for modern applications, competing with desktop software in increasingly ambitious categories. A new discipline of browser-based application engineering is emerging, distinct from traditional web development. Developers are embracing WebGL, WebAssembly, and other recent browser advances to build applications that are as performant and capable as native desktop apps.

We’ve been around browser-based applications our whole careers. Taylor has built WebGL visualizations at Datadog and Uber, and Paul has worked on data-intensive software at Google and Two Sigma.

Drifting in Space exists because we saw an opportunity to build a company that’s uniquely obsessed with enabling high-performance, browser-based applications. The next generation of application software will exploit both the immediacy of client-side rendering and the raw power of server-side compute. Getting there will require a fresh look at the entire stack.

Today, we’re thrilled to announce that Y Combinator has backed our vision. Drifting in Space is part of Y Combinator’s Winter 2022 cohort.

We’ve released Plane, our open-source implementation of session backends. We’re also opening up our managed session backend platform, Jamsocket, to early users. If you’re pushing up against the limits of the browser, let’s talk. You can also follow us at @drifting_corp, @paulgb, and @taylorbaldwin.

Note: when this post was written, Plane was called Spawner. The post has been updated to reflect this change.