# Discourse: Information technology & services, Chicago, United States

> Discourse: Discourse is an open-source community platform founded in 2012 by Jeff Atwood, Robin Ward, and Sam Saffron. Based in Chicago, United States.

Source: https://millionrounds.com/startup/discourse (Millionrounds; every figure on the page links to its filing or article)

United States · [Information technology & services startup](https://millionrounds.com/companies)

# Discourse

Discourse is an open-source community platform founded in 2012 by Jeff Atwood, Robin Ward, and Sam Saffron.

Funding reported Last round: Series A

Information technology & services Chicago, United States

Company summary

- **Founded:** 2012 14 years old
- **Team:** 54 51 to 200 people
- **Funding reported:** $20M in dollars
- **Last round:** Series A Aug 2021

How sure we are

- ✓ **Listed** We know it exists and what it does
- 2 **Funding reported** A company dataset reports a raise
- 3 **Observed** A filing or a dated announcement confirms a round

No round for Discourse has been confirmed by a filing or an announcement yet, so nothing here counts toward an investor's record. [How we decide](https://millionrounds.com/methodology)

## About Discourse

Discourse is an open-source community platform founded in 2012 by Jeff Atwood, Robin Ward, and Sam Saffron.

Developed by Civilized Discourse Construction Kit, Inc., the platform aims to enhance online discussions through thoughtful, long-form conversation software. Discourse offers a subscription-based managed hosting service, starting at $20 per month, alongside custom development and consulting services. The platform functions as a discussion forum, mailing list replacement, and long-form chat room, featuring built-in community moderation, a trust system, real-time notifications, and over 60 official plugins for extendability. Discourse serves a wide range of clients, including technology companies like Shopify and NVIDIA, educational institutions, gaming companies, and nonprofits. With a focus on both indie developers and large enterprises, Discourse provides options for self-hosting and scalable managed hosting, promoting civilized and sustainable online conversations for various organizational needs.

## What company datasets say Discourse raised

Funding, as reported

Reported in all **$20M** in dollars

Rounds **2**

Last round **Series A**

Last round size **$20M**

Last round date **Aug 2021**

Investors listed **3**

## Founders and team

From Discourse's own website: 1 founder, 38 on the team.

**Sam Saffron** Co-founder, CEO

- **New Zealand** CEO
- **Sarah Hawk** CEO
- **Glenn Toh** CFO
- **Andrew Schleifer** Infrastructure Team Lead
- **Bas van Leeuwen** Customer Success Manager
- **Bianca Nenciu** Software Engineer - Infrastructure
- **Bryce Huhtala** Designer
- **Charlie Poiters** Designer
- **Chevaun Tarrach** General Counsel
- **Constanza Abarca** Migrations Team Lead
- **Daniela Bogazzi** Support Lead
- **Danielle Lloyd** Customer Success Manager
- **David McClure** Director of Product
- **Flavia Sasaki** Customer Success Manager
- **Ginevra Brown** Senior Accounting Specialist
- **Guo Xiang Tan** Software Engineering Team Lead
- **Jake Goldsborough** Software Engineer - Infrastructure
- **Jamie Wilson** Director of Customer Projects

And 20 more on the team.

## On a portfolio page

Investors who name them

- [Vault Innovation](https://millionrounds.com/fund/vault-innovation)

Each firm lists Discourse on its own website. That is the firm's claim, a weaker thing than a round we watched, but a named source.

## The company, in detail

What they build

Known for

libraries open source community forum customization services plugins and integrations community platform custom themes information technology & services badge system community analytics dashboard community moderation single sign-on archives searchable knowledge base redis community management ruby on rails

Built with from their website

Docker Amazon SES Google Tag Manager Amazon CloudFront dbt Fivetran YouTube GitHub Google Workspace CloudFlare

+8 more

Viewport Meta Google Play Google Cloud BigQuery Amazon Simple Email Service Hubspot PostgreSQL Unreal Engine Amazon S3

- **Sector:** Information technology & services
- **Industry code:** NAICS 519, 513210, 518210, SIC 7375
- **Region:** Illinois
- **Revenue:** $13M a year, as listed
- **Full record:** [Every detail in the company directory](https://millionrounds.com/directory/discourse)

## Information technology & services in United States

Startups like it

- [**Databricks** San Francisco · founded 2013 *Raised*](https://millionrounds.com/company/databricks)
- [**Waymo** Mountain View · founded 2009 *Raised*](https://millionrounds.com/company/waymo)
- [**Crusoe** Denver · founded 2018 *Raised*](https://millionrounds.com/company/crusoe)
- [**Cursor** San Francisco · founded 2017 *Raised*](https://millionrounds.com/company/cursor)
- [**Thinking Machines Lab** San Francisco *Raised*](https://millionrounds.com/company/thinking-machines-lab)
- [**Cognition** San Francisco *Raised*](https://millionrounds.com/company/cognition)
- [**Polymarket** New York · founded 2020 *Raised*](https://millionrounds.com/company/polymarket)
- [**Harvey** San Francisco · founded 2022 *Raised*](https://millionrounds.com/company/harvey)

## Is this your company?

Add your raise, your deck and your story, and put Discourse in front of investors. Or tell us what we have wrong.

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