Zude raises $5.3 million, but for what?

Published by Charl Norman on Jan 18th, 2008, 3 Comments

I’ve just heard that Zude “an enabling technology that allows even novice web users to create and control their own web pages” managed to raise $5.3 million from Irwin Lieber and Barry Rubenstein of Wheatley Partners, Persistency Capital and Gund Investment, LLC.

You may probably ask, just like me why they did it, because $5.3 million for a website that Alexa ranks as 228,000 may not be that good for those investors. The money will be used for product development that include new tools and growing the user base but is it me, or they’re trying to be a better Netvibes?

It’s a truly web 2.0 company, I’ll have to agree but claiming to bring all your social networks in one place, consolidate your web, share photos and experiences could be to much. I’m just an inch away of putting it in the dead pool but I’ll have to wait for the signs to confirm. Meanwhile, tell us your experience with Zude, if you had any.

Source

http://www.5g.com Steve Repetti

Charl, Thanks for the write-up and the posting of the questions. Interesting reference to the Alexa rating. What may be even more interesting, is thus far 5G/Zude has spent virtually nothing on marketing or advertising.

We are first and foremost a technology company (authors of the FGL programming language, creators of the open5G development platform and arguably one of the fastest servers running on the planet, as well as a pretty darn cool hybrid relational/object database) [Lots more about THAT stuff in the weeks and months to come].

Zude quickly became a very effective way for us to show off our technology. To that end, we have spent the last year focusing on enhancing, refining, and evolving the social computing space — while tactfully embracing advanced technology. We don’t always get it right the first time — but we ARE persistant.

We have also been fortunate to have the funds and a VERY supportive board that have enabled us to focus on the important things — power, performance, flexibility, user experience (and so much more), without concern for today’s revenue. Revenue is NOT the goal — it is a PLEASANT CONSEQUENCE of our efforts.

And now, after nearly a year of living in the shadows — NOW, we continue. NOW we bring it to the world — not perfect, not even close, but with the technical power to evolve, refine, and revolutionize, as well as the financial wherewithall and technical prowess that is always required in such endevours.

I, for one, love this job, love this industry, love the challenge, and love the opportunity.
http://www.bandwidthblog.com Alex Ion

Hi Steve,

first thing, it was me, the one that wrote the article, Alex Ion and secondly I am pretty glad to see that you guys at 5G are very confident about the deal.

It sounds like you guys want to make it big and I really wish you luck. But only time can tell if this is going to be a good investment or not.

Hope you guys can get back here and tip us on what’s going on with you over there to cover it.
http://www.5g.com Steve Repetti

Thanks Alex, will make sure we keep you posted!

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