GroundWork
GroundWork is a private, San Francisco-based open-source IT monitoring software company (founded 2004, 51-100 employees) delivering its "Unified Monitoring for Real" platform to enterprise and mid-market IT operations teams managing heterogeneous infrastructure.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2020
- HeadquartersSan Francisco, United States
- Headcount51–100
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What GroundWork does
GroundWork is a privately held US software company headquartered in San Francisco, founded in 2004, that delivers an open software platform branded "Unified Monitoring for Real" (gwos.com) for IT infrastructure and operations monitoring. The platform is positioned as a unified monitoring solution, consistent with the company's open-source heritage, and targets enterprise and mid-market IT operations teams that need to observe heterogeneous infrastructure (network devices, servers, applications, and services) through a single pane of glass. The company operates with 51-100 employees and is led by Christopher Hickey (Chief Executive Officer) and Thomas Stocking (Vice President of Product Strategy).
The company's go-to-market is anchored in open-source distribution, leveraging its gwos.com domain and long-running brand equity in the open-source monitoring community. Its core product architecture is an open software platform rather than a proprietary SaaS suite, which implies a freemium or community-led adoption model complemented by commercial support, subscriptions, or enterprise add-ons (specific pricing tiers, customer segments, and named logos are not disclosed in the input). The product organization is structured around a dedicated VP of Product Strategy role, signaling product-led discipline even though detailed product roadmap, integration ecosystem, and competitive positioning data are not available.
From a capital and ownership perspective, GroundWork has raised approximately $29,000,000 in aggregate disclosed venture funding across four rounds between 2004 and 2009, with Canaan Partners, Icon Ventures, Mayfield Fund, and Sapphire Ventures as the historical investor base. There is no evidence of subsequent funding rounds, M&A activity, or a liquidity event in the input data, and the company remains private. No revenue, ARR, customer count, or geographic distribution figures are disclosed, which constrains financial triangulation but is consistent with a mid-sized, self-sustaining open-source vendor profile.
GroundWork firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- GroundWork
- Legal name
- Xoilac TV
- Website
- https://gwos.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2020
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 51–100 employees
- Short description
- GroundWork is a private, San Francisco-based open-source IT monitoring software company (founded 2004, 51-100 employees) delivering its "Unified Monitoring for Real" platform to enterprise and mid-market IT operations teams managing heterogeneous infrastructure.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
GroundWork industry classification
Industry- Product category
- IT Infrastructure Monitoring
- SIC
- Services-Computer Programming Services (7371)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Incident Response, On-Call & Operational Readiness (BPAEAKAL)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- DevOps, SRE & Platform Engineering (CI/CD, IaC, Containers) (EDABAFAC)
Keywords
Where GroundWork is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- San Francisco
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
GroundWork business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales
Revenue model
- Advertising Revenue: Primary revenue from advertising, including banner ads displayed on the homepage from partnered gambling operators (nhà cái). The platform does not insert ads during live matches to preserve user experience.
- Affiliate Partnerships: Revenue from affiliate partnerships with online gambling operators (8XBET and others), with banners and links on the platform
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Pay-as-you-go | Free Access - No subscription required |
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels5 records
GroundWork product offering
Product offeringCore offering
GroundWork delivers Unified Monitoring for Real™, an open software platform that provides unified monitoring of IT infrastructure, networks, and applications. The platform serves IT operations teams by consolidating visibility across heterogeneous IT environments from a single monitoring console. GroundWork is positioned as an open-source alternative to commercial monitoring suites for mid-market and enterprise customers.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- GroundWork Unified Monitoring Platform (Unified Monitoring for Real™)
Quantifiable outcome
- Tens of thousands of daily visits
Companies that use GroundWork
Customer profileSegments2 records
Ideal customer profiles2 records
GroundWork technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature4 records
GroundWork partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
One partnership is on record.
- 8XBETcore8XBET is listed as the primary advertising partner and 'Đơn vị chủ quản' (managing entity) of Xoilac TV. The partnership includes banner advertising on the platform and links to 8XBET gambling services. 8XBET is described as an official partner of Manchester City FC. The relationship appears to be a core revenue-generating partnership where Xoilac TV provides advertising space and affiliate referrals to 8XBET.
Scale indicators4 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights3 records
GroundWork competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Nagios Enterprises: Nagios is the canonical open-source IT infrastructure monitoring platform on which GroundWork's heritage is built. It is the closest direct peer given overlapping product scope (network, server, and application monitoring) and an identical open-source-plus-commercial go-to-market model.
- Zabbix: Zabbix is an enterprise-grade open-source monitoring solution covering networks, servers, and cloud resources. It competes head-on with GroundWork in delivering unified monitoring for hybrid IT estates, with a comparable open-source business model.
- Icinga: Icinga is a Nagios-fork open-source monitoring project with its own enterprise distribution. It is a direct peer to GroundWork in the open-source Nagios-derived monitoring category, serving very similar SMB and enterprise hybrid monitoring use cases.
Broad incumbents
- Datadog: Datadog is a leading cloud-native monitoring and observability platform with a much broader SaaS portfolio. It is a relevant broader incumbent because it competes for the same unified monitoring budget that GroundWork historically targeted, especially in enterprises modernizing their monitoring stack.
- New Relic: New Relic is a full-stack observability platform spanning APM, infrastructure, and log monitoring. It represents the cloud-era incumbent that traditional open-source monitoring vendors like GroundWork are increasingly being benchmarked against by enterprise buyers.
- Dynatrace: Dynatrace offers an AI-driven unified observability and monitoring platform for cloud environments. It is a broader incumbent peer in the same enterprise monitoring category that GroundWork serves, with significant traction in large regulated enterprises.
- Splunk (Cisco): Splunk, now part of Cisco, is a major player in log analytics, infrastructure monitoring, and observability. It competes for unified monitoring and operational intelligence budgets that overlap with GroundWork's value proposition in hybrid enterprise environments.
- ManageEngine (Zoho): ManageEngine offers a broad suite of IT management software including unified infrastructure monitoring (OpManager). It is a broader incumbent competing for the same unified monitoring spend, with a wide SMB-to-enterprise customer base.
Emerging players
- Checkmk: Checkmk is a modern open-source IT monitoring platform with both open-source and enterprise editions, focusing on infrastructure and application monitoring. It is a comparable open-source alternative for unified monitoring with a growing commercial footprint.
- ScienceLogic: ScienceLogic provides an AIOps-driven IT infrastructure monitoring platform for hybrid and multi-cloud environments. It targets the same unified monitoring buyer that GroundWork serves, particularly in mid-to-large enterprises with complex estates.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights5 records
Customer concentration
GroundWork social profiles
Digital presenceGroundWork financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
GroundWork leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles2 records
GroundWork funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds4 records
Investors4 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
GroundWork M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about GroundWork
What does GroundWork do?
GroundWork delivers Unified Monitoring for Real™, an open software platform that provides unified monitoring of IT infrastructure, networks, and applications. The platform serves IT operations teams by consolidating visibility across heterogeneous IT environments from a single monitoring console. GroundWork is positioned as an open-source alternative to commercial monitoring suites for mid-market and enterprise customers.
Is GroundWork a public or private company?
GroundWork is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was GroundWork founded?
GroundWork was founded in 2020. It employs 51 to 100 people.
Where is GroundWork based?
GroundWork is headquartered in San Francisco, United States, in the North America region.
How does GroundWork make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. Advertising Revenue is the primary driver. The others are affiliate Partnerships.
Who are GroundWork's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Nagios Enterprises, Zabbix and Icinga. Broad incumbents are Datadog, New Relic, Dynatrace, Splunk (Cisco) and ManageEngine (Zoho). Emerging players are Checkmk and ScienceLogic.
Does GroundWork have an API?
No public API is recorded for GroundWork.
What industry is GroundWork in?
GroundWork's product category is IT Infrastructure Monitoring. Its primary akta.pro industry code is BPAEAKAL, Incident Response, On-Call & Operational Readiness, with a secondary code of EDABAFAC, DevOps, SRE & Platform Engineering (CI/CD, IaC, Containers). Its SIC code is 7371.