Evil Martians
Evil Martians is a Brooklyn-based product development consultancy, founded in 2006, that embeds senior engineers in early-stage developer tools, AI, infrastructure, and cybersecurity startups (~40 per year, mostly seed-to-Series-B, many YC-backed) at $8,000/week per consultant, supported by a 100+ project open source portfolio with 25 billion+ downloads.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2006
- HeadquartersBrooklyn, United States
- Headcount51–100
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingServices
What Evil Martians does
Evil Martians is a private product development consultancy founded in 2006 and headquartered in Brooklyn, New York, with additional offices in San Francisco, Porto, and Osaka. The firm serves approximately 40 early-stage startups per year, primarily at the seed to Series B stage, with a strong concentration of Y Combinator-backed companies. Its core offering is forward-deployed engineering: senior consultants embed directly into client repositories and ship products from proof-of-concept through product-market fit and scaling. The rate is $8,000 per week per consultant, with custom-scoped engagements typically structured as multi-year contracts.
The firm's technical footprint spans Ruby on Rails (its deepest heritage), TypeScript, Go, Rust, Python, and React, with platform engineering expertise across Kubernetes, Terraform, AWS, PostgreSQL, and real-time infrastructure using WebSocket and CRDT technologies. A defining differentiator is its open source portfolio of 100+ projects with 25 billion+ cumulative downloads, including PostCSS (the #2 most popular CSS tool, used by Google, Facebook, and GitHub), Nanoid (111M weekly downloads), imgproxy (32M), AnyCable (9M), and the more recent AgentPrism for AI agent trace visualization.
Evil Martians monetizes exclusively through professional services. Go-to-market is community-led and content-driven: the Martian Chronicles blog, the Dev Propulsion Labs podcast (featuring founders from Sentry, Cursor, Supabase, PlanetScale, WorkOS, and Neon), conference keynotes (RailsConf, RubyConf, EuRuKo), the SF Ruby meetup and conference, and direct referrals within the Y Combinator network. Customer segments include early-stage developer tools startups (primary), AI-native companies, cybersecurity startups (Teleport, Tines, Wallarm, Daylight Security), infrastructure companies (NATS, Synadia, GMI Cloud), and select enterprise engagements (Doximity). The company has helped eight clients grow from seed to unicorn status, with 65% of clients raising their next funding round within one to three years of engagement. Notable outcomes include bolt.new scaling to $40M ARR in five months. The firm operates without external funding and shows no parent company or subsidiary structure.
Evil Martians firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Evil Martians
- Legal name
- Evil Martians Inc
- Website
- https://evilmartians.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2006
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 51–100 employees
- Short description
- Evil Martians is a Brooklyn-based product development consultancy, founded in 2006, that embeds senior engineers in early-stage developer tools, AI, infrastructure, and cybersecurity startups (~40 per year, mostly seed-to-Series-B, many YC-backed) at $8,000/week per consultant, supported by a 100+ project open source portfolio with 25 billion+ downloads.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Evil Martians industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Software Development Consulting
- NAICS
- Custom Computer Programming Services (541511), Computer Systems Design and Related Services (5415), Other Computer Related Services (541519)
- SIC
- Services-Computer Programming Services (7371), Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370), Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Cybersecurity & Identity Consulting (BPAHAEAG)
Keywords
Where Evil Martians is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Brooklyn
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices4 records
Markets served
Evil Martians business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- Product Development Consulting: Evil Martians provides product development consultancy services with embedded engineers who work in client repositories. They work across Go, TypeScript, Ruby on Rails, Rust, Python, and React. Services include product development from PoC to MVP, iteration to PMF, and scaling through explosive growth. Rate is $8,000/week per Martian.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Other | Multi-year contract | Weekly consulting engagement at $8,000 per Martian |
Go-to-market motion3 records
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels7 records
Evil Martians product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Evil Martians is a product development consultancy that embeds senior engineers into early-stage developer tools, AI, infrastructure, and cybersecurity startups. Teams work in client repositories across Ruby on Rails, TypeScript, Go, Rust, Python, and React, taking products from proof-of-concept through product-market fit to scalable growth. The firm also maintains and supports 100+ open source projects with 25 billion+ total downloads, including PostCSS, Nanoid, imgproxy, AnyCable, Lefthook, Nano Stores, and AgentPrism.
Product overview
Evil Martians is a product development consultancy for developer tools, AI, and cybersecurity startups. They offer consulting services including Agent Experience development, product development, design for devtools, frontend & real-time, platform engineering, and performance & scalability. The company maintains 100+ open source projects with 25 billion+ total downloads, including PostCSS, Nanoid, imgproxy, AnyCable, Lefthook, Nano Stores, AgentPrism, Autoprefixer, and Browserslist. Evil Martians works with ~40 early-stage startups annually, helping them ship developer tools from PoC to product-market fit, with a focus on Go, TypeScript, Ruby on Rails, Rust, Python, and React. Their rate is $8,000/week per Martian. Notable open source products include AnyCable (realtime WebSocket server), AgentPrism (AI agent trace visualization), PostCSS (CSS processing with 1.9M+ weekly downloads), Nanoid (unique ID generator with 111M weekly downloads), and imgproxy (image optimization server).
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Dev Propulsion Labs: Podcast hosted by Victoria Melnikova interviewing founders of successful devtools companies including Sentry, Cursor, Supabase, PlanetScale, WorkOS, Neon, Chroma, Resend, and others.
- PostCSS
- AnyCable
- Nanoid
- imgproxy
- Lefthook
- Nano Stores
- AgentPrism
Products and services
- Product Development Consulting Forward-deployed engineers who ship client products from PoC to product-market fit; embedded in the client's repository, stack, and cadence. Covers Rails, TypeScript, Go, Rust, Python, and React.
- Agent Experience Development
Quantifiable outcome
- 8 clients grew from seed to unicorn status
- +6 more outcomes
Companies that use Evil Martians
Customer profileNamed customers14 records
Segments5 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
Evil Martians technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
AI capability3 records
Feature7 records
Evil Martians partnerships and signals
Strategic signalScale indicators14 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Evil Martians competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- DockYard: Product development consultancy with deep Elixir/Ruby on Rails expertise serving enterprise and startup clients; comparable in embedded-engineer model and devtools/fintech vertical mix.
- Atomic Object: US-based product development consultancy that embeds cross-functional teams with client companies; comparable embedded-team model and product-discovery focus.
- Thoughtbot: Boutique design and product development consultancy with a strong focus on Ruby on Rails and developer-facing products; directly comparable in service offering, stack expertise, and startup client base.
- Hashrocket: Ruby on Rails and React consultancy pairing senior developers with product teams; matches Evil Martians on stack specialization and small-team boutique structure.
- Netguru: Large-scale product development consultancy offering embedded engineering across web, mobile, and AI; comparable consulting model with a similar mix of startup and enterprise clients.
- Icalia Labs: Software development consultancy with nearshore delivery for North American clients; comparable embedded-team model and startup-focused engagements.
- Mad Devs: Custom software development consultancy serving startups and enterprises with full-stack teams; overlaps on embedded-engineer services and devtools/AI client mix.
Regional players
- Le Wagon: Global coding bootcamp that also offers web development and prototyping services; partial overlap with Evil Martians on dev-adjacent services, particularly strong in Europe.
Broad incumbents
- Toptal: Large freelance engineering talent marketplace; broader and more transactional than Evil Martians but competes for the same startup budget lines around on-demand senior engineers.
- Pivotal Labs: Long-standing pioneer of the pair-programming/embedded-engineer consultancy model (now part of VMware/Broadcom); overlaps on consulting methodology but serves much larger enterprise clients.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Evil Martians social profiles
Digital presenceEvil Martians financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Evil Martians leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles10 records
Evil Martians funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Evil Martians 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 Evil Martians
What does Evil Martians do?
Evil Martians is a product development consultancy that embeds senior engineers into early-stage developer tools, AI, infrastructure, and cybersecurity startups. Teams work in client repositories across Ruby on Rails, TypeScript, Go, Rust, Python, and React, taking products from proof-of-concept through product-market fit to scalable growth. The firm also maintains and supports 100+ open source projects with 25 billion+ total downloads, including PostCSS, Nanoid, imgproxy, AnyCable, Lefthook, Nano Stores, and AgentPrism.
Is Evil Martians a public or private company?
Evil Martians is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was Evil Martians founded?
Evil Martians was founded in 2006. It employs 51 to 100 people.
Where is Evil Martians based?
Evil Martians is headquartered in Brooklyn, United States, in the North America region.
How does Evil Martians make money?
One revenue line is on record: product Development Consulting.
Who are Evil Martians's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are DockYard, Atomic Object, Thoughtbot, Hashrocket, Netguru, Icalia Labs and Mad Devs. Le Wagon is listed as a regional player. Broad incumbents are Toptal and Pivotal Labs.
Does Evil Martians have an API?
No public API is recorded for Evil Martians.
What industry is Evil Martians in?
Evil Martians's product category is Software Development Consulting. Its primary akta.pro industry code is BPAHAEAG, Cybersecurity & Identity Consulting. Its NAICS code is 541511 and its SIC code is 7371.