Acquia has raised $7 million
Today we announced that Acquia has raised $7 million from a group of venture capital (VC) firms. That's a wonderful vote of confidence in Drupal, and a testament to the incredible opportunity that lies before all of us. And it means that Acquia is going to be able to help the Drupal community make Drupal even better.
So you're probably thinking: "Wow, that's a lot of money! What are you going to do with it all?". Well, we're going to do what we said we would do earlier this month: build a company that develops a number of Drupal distributions and that offers electronic services that make Drupal easier to use and manage. The funding allows us to quickly bring together a world-class team, rent office space, buy equipment, etc. Starting a great company is not cheap, especially if you have big dreams and plans. In fact, Jay summed up our goals nicely.
Working with Jay to get this capital secured was an incredible experience: strolling around the areas where VCs all put their offices in Boston and on Sand Hill Road in California, doing the work to show market opportunity, create business plans, working up the courage to pitch investors in partner meetings, and working with the lawyers on the mountains of paperwork. I certainly learned a lot about what investors look for, how they make decisions, etc.
One of the things I'm really proud of is the quality of the investors that Jay and I managed to attract. Just like investors are extremely selective with regard to the companies they invest in, we have been picky about the VC firms that we wanted to work with. There have been few businesses that have tried to do what we're about to do, and so I'm really happy that we found investors that really "get" open source.
Now the money is in the bank, our first challenge is to build out the rest of the Acquia team. Many of our people will be working on things other than Drupal. They'll be building and testing services we plan to provide over the Internet, providing support to our customers, and evangelizing and building awareness for Acquia products and Drupal in general.
However, a good number of Acquia people will be working 100% on Drupal, alongside the rest of the community. This is an important investment, because Acquia succeeds only if Drupal succeeds, and we're going to do our part. We'll contribute code, QA testing and other important things like user experience design, marketing, documentation, etc. We'll talk more about our plans in the near future.
All in all, I think it's a great time to be a Drupal user.
7 million is huge if we look
7 million is huge if we look just at 7 million $$$$
But if we are really looking for something extraordinary and to take company among big ones... then first and foremost what we need is vision and commitment.. which I guess promoter of company does not need to prove as success of drupal.org tells a lot about it...
But just with vision we cannot move forward... we need very talented team... for that we need money to lure them... No when acquia has money.. So we all should look for some quality web work :)
ALL THE BEST for selection of team as that is now only missing thing in one more success of story of DRIES... certainly acquia meeds cleint.. but i guess dries can get more client then what he can cater :)
amazing. nice work dries. i
amazing. nice work dries. i hope you accomplish all your goals and that this allows us to work more and more closely together! :)
Congrats Dries! I get the
Congrats Dries! I get the feeling this is gonna work out great.
Good stuff Dries. It sounds
Good stuff Dries. It sounds like this will be very professionally rewarding for you - and maybe not so bad financially speaking too!
I'm still getting acquainted with Drupal, but leaning towards using it for a new community site I'm building (in progress) in the home improvement industry - tips, reviews, etc. for DIY-ers. Drupal seems to be tailor-made for this type of site.
Felicidades a Acquia desde
Felicidades a Acquia desde Mexico !
You have brought us your best.
We wish you the best !
salud
That is a brilliant news for
That is a brilliant news for everyone working with Drupal and Open Source.
I look forward to see what 2008 has in store for the platform and it is no doubt that this is the start of a new era for drupal and distributed platforms.
Congrats to you and your team Dries!
Well, first, congratulations
Well, first, congratulations for the success of such a newborn company.
Second, I believe in you guys for making a great company in the future and show your support (as you've done already) for free and open software. I think the world have long deserved to come to see some good companies and initiatives by globally-driven communities.
I can only imagine that sort
I can only imagine that sort of funding.. but please remember us.. the community of developers and users is what really makes it work..how about giving some of that away to the development community as a bonus "carrat on a string" sorta initiative like Google is doing with Android.
Well, that's pretty much
Well, that's pretty much incredible. A hearty congratulations - what a Christmas gift (for you and Drupal)! : )
David Windham makes a great
David Windham makes a great suggestion... although $7million doesn't quite put Acquia in the same ballpark as Google. ;)
What they're doing with Android is a great incentive and could work well in the Drupal Community... like a Bounty manager to help make the Bounty process flow smoother.
I am very happy that
I am very happy that investors are interested in Drupal. But I could not even imagine that they are SO interested! 7m!! :) Congratulations, Dries!
Congratulations! It's really
Congratulations! It's really good when there's money to be invested in open source projects whilte it gives profit to business people(I mean theres more motivation I think for business people to put money[and this is good for project] in open source while it gives them good profit) the most important thing is to do all this stuff(as Sami Khan sad) without ruining the GPL dynamic of Drupal.
As for Georgia, where I live, after these news more and more people think about moving to drupal as their main cms for web site development.
Good Luck!
The funny thing about VCs is
The funny thing about VCs is that when they give you $7 million they expect $14 million or $21 million or more in return. And they usually expect it pretty quickly. When things are not going their way, they have a tendency to force changes. And the goal of those changes is ALWAYS to find a way to make more money, more quickly, regardless of the principle's of open source, Drupal, or Dries.
I have seen it happen over and over again, both in companies that I have been personally involved with and in the public sphere. Anyone who doesn't see that VC can quickly turn into a poison pill has not been paying attention. So I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried . . . not today, not tomorrow, but 2 years from now when Acquia isn't meeting earnings goals and the VCs start getting big ideas on how to change that, principles be damned.
One thing is proven here,
One thing is proven here, Drupal is a great CMS otherwise the VC's wouldn't put their money on the table. But you have a point, VC's want to earn money, a lot and fast. I hope in due time they sell their shares to a company that has the future in mind and not only making a quick buck.
Hopefully Dries can prove that company's can do extremely well in providing services and added value to open source software.
Very nice post, 7 mln is
Very nice post, 7 mln is certainly great!
Hey Dries,Congrats First of
Hey Dries,Congrats
First of let me congratulate you for this achievement and iam really confident that Aquia under your lead will grow into one of the most sucessful companies in the world.Wishing you best of luck for gathering a good management team who would take care of your companies operations. And Dries,please never ever leave drupal to anyone, its your blood and you cannot separate from this. So i think you will be able to draw a line between your commercial interests and community interests
Thanks for very interesting
Thanks for very interesting article. I have seen it happen over and over again, both in companies that I have been personally involved with and in the public sphere.
Drupal seems to be tailor-made for this type of site.
Wow, Drupal is bigger than I
Wow, Drupal is bigger than I thought. Good luck with all the money. Spend it wisely!
Drupal is really great. very
Drupal is really great. very nice post thanks a lot.
Drupal is my favorite. So
Drupal is my favorite. So this is a good news!
Drupal is an Excellent
Drupal is an Excellent Platform. I looking forward to using it for my
Youth Organization. I'm looking forward to the innovative changes moving forward. Congrats on this acheivement. Acquia deserves it!
i'm also starting to use
i'm also starting to use drupal also...thanks for that helpful tips there
Absolutely not surprised by
Absolutely not surprised by this at all. Drupal is an excellent open source platform that I will be adding to support an upcoming forum site I am starting. I have been recommended by SEO's that I work with to stick with Drupal products over some of the competitors.
Really great, i have also
Really great, i have also started to use drupal it's quite a cool software.
Drupal is my favorite. So
Drupal is my favorite. So this is a good news!
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