
Weebly, A YC company, closes a $650k Investment - rokhayakebe
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/05/09/weebly-launches-blog-platform-bags-650k-investment/
======
whacked_new
Apparently Weebly took YC financing after being featured on TC. I am pretty
sure this creates a different mentality from the investor perspective, YC
included.

If YC finances a rising company, as opposed to paper-idea company, they have a
much better look at how the market is reacting; would it be fair to say that
in this way, it is much easier to spot potential successes, and fund very much
in the style of a normal VC, as opposed to early stage seed funding?

I would assume so. And if that's true, is it fair to say the Weebly would've
done equally well without YC funding, and directly went for larger
investments? Or was YC the stepping stone for that? And if so, how?

~~~
drusenko
we would not have been able to raise if it wasn't for yc, and several of the
yc alums that helped us along

------
vlad
I just created a blog for my upcoming web site!

They've REALLY improved since the last time I looked. I thought back in March
that they really needed to have a blog, and they have it! Here's my site:

ratemyapp.weebly.com

------
staunch
What Weebly Could Do: Make their editor a drop-in / turn-key service for other
sites to use as their Custom Profile Editor for users's profile pages.

Co-brand that biatch and call it a day.

------
startupper
Is this like Infogami 2.0?

~~~
staunch
Perhaps Viaweb 2.0

------
danielha
Congrats to the Weeblys. I used Weebly for the first time about a week ago
when I wanted to quickly put a page of info. It works well.

------
ced
Is that considered angel, or VC money?

~~~
rokhayakebe
VC

~~~
drusenko
you'd be surprised. the lawyers consider it a series a, but journalists
consider it angel

------
rokhayakebe
One sure thing is that YC invests in companies that enables the average Joes
(like me) to do things the simple way. It has to be dead simple to use (well I
am sure there a few exceptions). I am not sure I would use Weebly, but it sure
can help several people with little technical background. Does anyone knows if
Weebly lets you use a custom URL?

~~~
rms
Weebly lets you use a custom URL and you can download your site as a zip
archive.

------
albertson1
Seriously now, is this a business? Seems more like a project to me.

~~~
rokhayakebe
It seems to me that Weebly has a long term strategy. They are trying to build
a good user base. As they improve their service those non-technical users will
learn how to build more complex websites and eventually some applications. It
is sort of like starting a Kinder_garden with the goals of adding a Grade each
year so your students won't have to look for another school.

~~~
rms
That doesn't have anything to do with them making money. I don't think their
monetization path is very important because best-in-breed web applications
don't have a problem getting acquired.

If Weebly was a Web 1.0 company, the founders would be billionaires already.

~~~
Cthulhu
"If Weebly was a Web 1.0 company, the founders would be billionaires already."

Poor logic.

~~~
albertson1
Very poor logic. Logic doesn't prevail at Y-Combinator.

