Webvanta Financing Closed!

Posted 18 December 2009

Following a marathon effort, I’m delighted to announce that we’ve closed Webvanta’s Series A financing. It’s very exciting, and quite a relief, to have this behind us and to be able to really focus on growing the company in 2010.

Webvanta has been so different from my previous startup, Fotiva. We financed Fotiva (originally called PhotoTablet) in early 2000, in the final days of the bubble. We had nothing but a PowerPoint deck, yet we raised considerably more money than Webvanta has raised, and at a higher valuation. Times certainly have changed.

Fotiva existed for less than two years from conception to the sale to Adobe. In retrospect, it was amazingly quick, though it didn’t feel like it at the time.

Webvanta has already been in business for longer than Fotiva’s entire existence, and we just now closed the Series A. We’ve had our product on the market for several months, we have paying customers, and we’re well on our way to 2.0. And we’ve done all this on a fraction of the capital that Fotiva consumed.

By building the company more gradually, instead of being urged on by the VC-driven “get big fast” mentality, we’ve been able to explore market opportunities and evolve our product strategy more naturally. Keeping the company small has had its challenges, but it’s also been empowering.

We’re well set for great growth in 2010. I’m grateful to everyone who has played a part in making this possible: my family, which has endured a dramatic reduction in my income along with long work hours; my business partner, Christopher Haupt, who has done most of the real work of building our product; our board members, David Hehman and Greg Seal, who have been extraordinarily supportive; the angel investors who have provided the capital; and the designers and site owners who have been our pioneering customers. Thanks!