# Growing Company, Growing Industry

This week, we are very proud to share [Postman growth & milestones](http://www.prweb.com/releases/postman_announces_growing_adoption_for_api_development_tools/prweb16050123.htm) from 2018. We had a great year, and we're really looking forward to 2019. In addition, we welcome IBM to our important and growing industry: API-first development!

To our surprise here at Postman, we recently found our name headlining IBM’s marketing materials. In December 2018, IBM launched an uncomplicated API testing & monitoring service, heralding it as an “alternative to Postman." When a global Goliath like 100-year-old IBM compares itself to Postman’s David - well, we’re honored to know we must be doing something right!

 ![](https://blog.postman.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screen-Shot-2019-01-17-at-12.11.07-PM.png)Back in 2014, **we** started with an uncomplicated API testing tool too, and since then, have developed Postman into a complete API-first development platform, with tooling to cover the entire [API lifecycle](https://www.postman.com/api-platform/api-lifecycle/). Building a simple tool for testing API requests wasn’t the real challenge – there are many companies providing ample tools for single-use cases. What we’ve learned, however, is that if you want to work with complex, real-world APIs in an effective way, you need a robust tool to support your workflow.

The API space is growing quickly, with both large, established companies and startups like Postman. We can hold our own in this space - even with massive enterprises like IBM! We recently outlined our 2018 accomplishments in a [press release](http://www.prweb.com/releases/postman_announces_growing_adoption_for_api_development_tools/prweb16050123.htm) - we grew like gangbusters in 2018, and there’s more to come in 2019.

In the meantime, I’ll share an [important rubric on choosing an API-first development platform](https://pages.getpostman.com/rs/067-UMD-991/images/Choose%20and%20API%20Platform.pdf). It outlines the key questions an API-first dev organization should be asking when evaluating tools for their development journey. It’s based on our extensive experience, and the feedback from the Postman community - which is currently 17 million developers and more than 200,000 companies.