
SurveyMonkey to buy Wufoo (YC W06) for $35m - sriramk
http://kara.allthingsd.com/20110425/surveymonkey-buys-online-forms-start-up-wufoo-for-35-million/
======
patio11
That's awesome news. Congratulations to the Wufoo team -- it is well deserved.
(Their product is awesome.)

It is also great news for SaaS startup generally, since Wufoo is a little of
column A and a little of column B on the typical grow via revenues VS get
investment and grow massively dichotomy. That's a data point in the favor of
at least some investors making investments in companies which have a projected
trajectory where massive success results in a company on the scale of
37Signals/FogCreek/Wufoo rather than resulting in a company on the scale of
Zynga/Groupon. $35 million won't exactly have VCs salivating but, oh well, if
they don't invest they don't get a vote -- the angels and employees of Wufoo
have to be happy like clams at this outcome.

~~~
spencerfry
As far as I know, Wufoo didn't raise VC. They only raised a small angel round.

~~~
dr_
The total amount raised, according to Crunchbase, was $118,000 (18000 YC +
100000 Angel). This was in 2006, so assuming there has been no other
investments made, looks like their revenues must have been pretty decent to be
able to support their operations.

~~~
paraschopra
If you consider a 10x multiple, revenues would have been in $3-4 MM range.
Wufoo sets a great example for exits where VCs are not involved but are
awesome for founders + employees.

------
webwright
SO happy for these guys! Well earned outcome.

The dollar-figure makes me wonder if there is a "valley multiplier" on startup
valuations. These guys built a great business with epic growth outside of the
valley with very little funding. Aside from their SaaS offering, they're doing
$200k of commerce transactions PER DAY.

If they were in the Valley and had taken a few million in funding, would the
price tag be different (i.e. much higher)? When I compare this exit to other
30-40M exits, Wufoo seems head-and-shoulders above the rest in terms of
revenue/profit, proven growth, proven team, etc.

~~~
jmathai
Yea, that's a great point/question. Unfortunately, one which I don't have an
answer too.

~~~
webwright
The other related question is: Is the multiplier "efficient"? In other words,
if they took funding and HQ'ed in the Valley, say they would've had to dilute
the founders from 33% to 23%. They'd also have a much bigger expense line
around real estate and salaries. Would the Valley premium more than make up
for all of that? I suspect that it would.

------
GavinB
Hopefully this is one of those acquisitions where the acquired company ends up
taking over and reinventing the acquiring company.

------
jmtame
"Wufoo has helped people collect over $100,000,000 worth of revenue for the
users and about $200,000 in payments per day."

I really hope you guys continue to kill it in the form space.

~~~
chrismiller
Not a snarky question, I am just confused.

Where do these numbers come from? How is Wufoo helping it's customers collect
revenue?

~~~
jmtame
I pulled this from Startups Open Sourced. Here's the context:

Q: Did you ever do any other big changes or pivots? A: Payment forms is a big
feature that we have at Wufoo and that’s something we even didn’t think about
when we launched the service. It’s one of those things that our users ask us
about, constantly. People are asking for payment integration like crazy; let’s
just see what we can do to make it happen, and our payment integration is
something that we’re really proud of—it’s this really easy way of assigning
prices to different choices in the form fields, and a significant driver of
revenue for us. Interesting fact: Wufoo has helped people collect over
$100,000,000 worth of revenue for the users and we process probably about
$200,000 in payments—in transactions—every single day. So Wufoo helps generate
a lot of significant revenue for our users.

full interview: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2481804>

------
mtw
I don't get it; where did surveymonkey found $35m? is there so much money to
make in online surveys?

~~~
Lewisham
I can believe there's the money, what I can't believe is why SurveyMonkey
appears to be so entrenched, it's not a product that's hard to replicate (at
least that's how it appears from the outside).

It also has a URL that really looks scammy. Whenever I see a mailing list
mailout from Big Corporation X, and it has a SurveyMonkey URL, I think "this
is pretty much the opposite of the professional image that they're trying to
pitch." I don't know how they do it. I guess that's why I'm not making the
mega-bucks ;)

However, it's a great exit for Wufoo, and congratulations to all of them.

~~~
mtw
Based on their site, surveymonkey seems to be very good in corporate sales,
having that big customer base is hard to replicate.

~~~
wmeredith
This is exactly it. The product _is_ easy to replicate, corporate account
acquisition is not.

------
vaksel
Wufoo is 5 years old?

Time sure does fly...if you asked me how old Wufoo was, I'd probably say a
year...two tops.

------
mtogo
Link to original article, without blogspam:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2481610>

~~~
petercooper
Posting news on your own, professional blog is "spam" now?

~~~
mtogo
If your blog post adds literally no value whatsoever and is on a blog that is
almost 100% repost spam, yes.

~~~
jbyers
This article added one fact of interest: a price.

------
revorad
PG must be very pleased. I think he invested in Wufoo (in addition to the
original YC investment).

------
azsromej
fun FAQ <http://wufoo.com/surveymonkey-wufoo-faq/>

------
jasonlbaptiste
Congratulations guys. I'd normally never want to see this happen, but survey
monkey is a great home and it's a great fit. I'm proud that we pay for your
service.

------
savrajsingh
What's interesting is Wufoo didn't take a lot of funding at the start, and
they grew over time.

It's great product that I've been happy to evangelize over the years. It does
what it says, and it does it well. Congrats Wufoo!

------
ja27
Interesting that they are (soon to be were) in Tampa, FL - not exactly a
hotbed of tech startups. Definitely cheaper to be there, but is it easier or
harder to draw talent?

------
marcamillion
So I am going to go out on a limb and take the Wufoo guys at their word.

I used Survey Monkey a bit on some grad projects, but wasn't too impressed by
what I saw. I mean, it was ok...but wasn't Wufoo-esque.

I love Wufoo and the founders have tremendous credibility in my eyes. It is
clear that they are VERY passionate and extremely intelligent. The thought and
effort they put into everything they do - from Particle Tree to Treehouse to
Wufoo - is awe-inspiring.

Given that they have not raised a ton of money, I can only assume that they
decided to do this deal on their own initiative and not based on pressure from
both PG & PB (both of their angels).

So it would seem that they know what they are doing.

I hope that this works out for the best. Although I am just a free user of
their product, I have a lot of respect for the team and have learnt a lot from
them.

I truly wish them all the best - even if it means they needed to sell.

------
p0ppe
Wufoo is YC W06.

~~~
sriramk
Updated the title - thanks

------
atourgates
A strangely perfect fit.

I use both Survey Monkey & Wufoo daily at work, and consider both of them to
be fantastic tools, which both could both use some love on the visual
customization end.

Survey Monkey's visual customization is limited to changing colors and
uploading a logo. With Wufoo - it's possible to generate custom CSS (or do
completely custom forms with their API) - but much more difficult than (I
feel) it should be.

So - congrats to both companies, and hopefully they'll now move in the
direction of more & easier visual customization.

------
6ren
> customers frequently use Wufoo’s forms to process online transactions.

> a process that previously required hours of work by web developers can now
> be done by anyone with web access in a matter of minutes.

Can I ask a question of the Wufoo team? Do you attribute your success
primarily to: allowing anyone to do what only web developers could do
(targeting non-consumption); reducing the work from hours to times; or
processing online transactions?

~~~
veeneck
If I had to pick one of those, it would be reducing work. People will pay for
something that makes their job easier / efficient. Knowing what people want is
hard though. I personally attribute it to day after day of paying attention to
the details in support, design and all other areas of a business, which slowly
builds trust and paying users.

~~~
6ren
Of the three, my guess would be making web-form creation accessible to people
who could not do it before. While it's great to save time, that's a percentage
improvement; whereas making the impossible possible is of a different order
altogether. It's also to get people to adopt if they haven't already invested
in a way of doing it that is already working for them (even if it is
inefficient etc) - change is hard when you have bigger problems to worry
about. But that's just my guess - I'd love to hear from the wufoo team...

But I agree with you about the support, design etc. There are a few companies
providing online forms. Technically, it's not that hard to do; and I had a
quick play with a competitor, that seemed pretty good. So I guess the "what
people want" above just defines the mini "industry" of online forms - if
Wufoo's is within an industry, its success must be based on additional
factors, like the ones you mention.

~~~
veeneck
"I'd love to hear from the wufoo team..."

That would be me :) I'm one of the co-founders.

~~~
6ren
whoops! Sorry, I am chagrined :/ But, bonus, I got an answer from a co-
founder. Thanks!

I thought you were speaking hypothetically (I checked your profile too).

------
slackerIII
Any idea how many employees Wufoo has? And how many are engineers/designers?

~~~
jcampbell1
12 based on the photo on this page:

<http://wufoo.com/2011/04/25/wufoo-surveymonkey-acquisition/>

My guess is 4-6 do customer support, and the rest do engineering / design.

~~~
unfoldedorigami
10 employees. 3 full time support people, but everyone actually does support.

------
dantheman
Congrats Wufoo!

------
tbrooks
Snarky 37signals post in t-minus...

~~~
zefhous
I don't think so.

Wufoo and SurveyMonkey are both profitable and they both charge for a product
that solves a real problem.

~~~
andreyf
Perhaps he's referencing to their post in response to Mint's acquisition [1].
I had the same response, although I don't use either service enough to have
much validity behind my opinion: Wufoo seems to have been better executed than
SurveyMonkey, at least from an UI perspective. That said, there's obviously
more to this business than simply executing well.

1\. [http://37signals.com/svn/posts/1927-the-next-generation-
bend...](http://37signals.com/svn/posts/1927-the-next-generation-bends-over)

~~~
bradleyland
Jason Fried's comments on the Mint acquisition could be summarized as
dissapointment over Mint "selling out". That is, they were on a good
trajectory to take out an incumbent institution, and instead of carrying that
through, they took a payday and let the incumbent off the hook.

The situation with SurveyMonkey and Wufoo couldn't be more different. Neither
is analogous to Intuit. Not by any stretch. Both companies are closer to
start-up than they are institution.

------
staunch
Wuhoo for Wufoo!

------
neilxdsouza
Wonder if SurveyMonkey is interested in buying us for only USD 500K :)

<http://sourceforge.net/projects/xtcc>

Man is this going to get me downvoted or what?!!

