Six Apart & Series B Funding

As you may have seen already, Six Apart decided to take additional funding from August Capital in a series "B" round.

When it boils down to taking funds, a venture firm believes that they will achieve a significant return on their investment. Venture funding isn't about charity. We believe that we have huge potential to do some great things. Ten million dollars is *a lot* of money -- it's a sort of figure that I can barely fathom when thinking about our roots. We'll use the money to bring the company to the next level -- a cliched phrase, I know. We're going to be competing with some of the largest companies in the world and it will take money to build the sort of features that we've been imagining and planning for the past three years. You're not going to see a Superbowl ad for TypePad or a warehouse of puppets. I learned a good lesson when I was a kid: just because you're given a ten dollar bill, doesn't mean you have to buy a seven dollar banana split. It's fitting that I write this while at the Web 2.0 conference. It's a different time for the web and we've all learned from mistakes of start-ups in the past. Being independent, but a significant player is really important to us.

Now, another one of my epic posts, this one being "The Book of August."

My first job out of college was at an educational start-up. I was a just a lowly "production specialist" -- that was their euphemistic title for me. At this job, I worked with a guy named Dan who was a senior designer. Dan and I hit it off immediately and we sat in the corner of the office making jokes and talking about life. Dan always answered my stupid questions such as "where can I buy a good drill" or "how does one file their taxes?" Dan used to talk about his good friend David Hornik, who was a VC at August Capital. Of course, when he told me what David did, I asked just exactly what a VC did. That was a long time ago.

Anyway, Dan always spoke highly of David and his family (David has like 14 kids) and that made a lasting impression on me -- even though I never met David for the first time until last year.

So when I first met Hornik and his wife and realized that this was the same VC friend of Dan, I decided I wouldn't mind going out to dinner with him. Of course old habits die hard and when he first mentioned that August would be interested in talking about funding, I didn't return his emails. It wasn't anything personal. In fact, knowing him by his reputation made me feel slightly bad for not returning his funding emails.

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Earlier this year we were approached by some venture firms asking us if we were interested in receiving more funding. Luckily for us, we were in a position where we didn't need to take more funding but weren't completely against speaking with firms and considering the option. We had internal goals that we wanted to meet before taking more money. We wanted to build our team out so we could smartly invest the money if we were to take it. We wanted to speak to a variety of firms to get an understanding of what these companies saw in us and how they envisioned our future.

Generally when you talk to venture capital partnerships, you are "represented" internally by one partner. This partner is responsible for doing all of the due diligence and presenting your case to the rest of the partnership. If the venture capital partnership does invest, this one partner typically becomes your board member. In speaking with the firms, an oft-spoken sell is that you not only get your one partner, but you get the entire team.

When Ben and I made the MIT Technology Review 100, Hornik sent us a pdf of the article that his father (who works at MIT) had sent him. Since it was a forward from his dad, I wrote to David and said it was sweet that his dad was interested in his work and his portfolio companies. Hornik replied something to the effect of "You don't just get me, you get my family."

It's that sort of personality which is essential within Six Apart. I believe the beginning of a relationship is incredibly indicative of how the relationship will evolve. And with David, who is a blogger both professionally and personally, we feel that we are working with someone who wants to evolve the space along with us. It's important to Six Apart that we like the people we bring into this company -- call me silly or idealistic.

In our case, we don't just get David as a board member, but also David Marquardt, the co-founder of August Capital and the co-founder of Technology Venture Investors (TVI) -- the sole investors in Microsoft. Marquardt also has sat on Microsoft's board since 1981. Now, that's the sort of board member who understands how to grow a small company. And, it's pretty amazing to consider that someone who sits on Microsoft's and Seagate's board thinks our company has the potential to do some great things in the space. We had a fantastic lunch with him in which we explained Six Apart's history and our vision for the future. He also wanted to get an idea of the people that they were investing in and Ben and I, in our usual bizarre way, made him think that we're the type of company that not only has good products but also ambitious founders. And, of course, I'm entertaining to watch.

When we finally announced the details of the funding to the entire staff at Six Apart, David and Dave came to the office to meet the team and participate in the announcement. I gave a toast where I thanked August for believing in Six Apart and wanting to be a part of what we're becoming. And, I thanked the staff for choosing to be a part of the company. We've got people who have moved across the country, who have left jobs with more security, who have agreed to wear many hats in many different roles and who believe in Six Apart. To be able to say that we have the capital to grow the company faster and bring to fruition the sort of things we talk about wanting to execute was really quite overwhelming.

Like I said the other day, it's a different era for weblogging companies. In one day, we will celebrate the three year anniversary of Movable Type. Three years doesn't seem that long on paper, but it seems a lifetime for Ben and me. We're proud that we've reached this place through many formative phases. Eighteen months in the spare bedroom, eighteen months running on a seed investment from Neoteny and now the next stage of something, we hope, will be even better.