I’m very proud to be able to announce that during what looks like the deepest economic crisis of recent history, SynthaSite’s investors are so confident of our success, that they have increased their investment by a further $20m (R200m). This is testament to the great work that our team have done in building a solid business with a great product. We have also grown our userbase to over 1m from just over 10,000 at the start of last year and we are poised for more radical growth this year.
Even though the world economy is not looking good, the fundamentals of our business remain the same : People everywhere will need websites, today, tomorrow and in 5 years time – when this depression is over! The funny thing is that our business is partially recession-proof, in that as people get retrenched, they start their own small businesses, and therefore need websites.
SynthaSite’s goal is to make it easy enough that anyone with a computer can create a website for their small business, organization or personal needs. We’re building a long term business here – we want to be the undisputed market leader, and this investment goes a long way to getting us there.
The first $5m that we received allowed us to hire 40+ people, create infrastructure, systems, process & support for our business to expand upon. We are now ready to take our product to various large ISP’s & PC Manufacturers and increasing our reach and distribution by getting our product into the mass market. We believe that this $20m investment will allow us to grow very quickly and become the de-facto standard amongst for small business & personal website building.
On a side note, when we first raised the $5m and I moved to San Francisco – I came under criticism from some local South African observers for moving abroad. Today, SynthaSite has created over 20 jobs in Cape Town and we moved 5 of us from Cape Town to San Francisco – this is job creation at it’s best for South Africa. (Thanks to Nic for his blog post today). I’m very proudly still South African and I’m glad to be able to contribute to the local economy and demonstrate what’s possible if you put your mind to it, make sacrifices and keep trying!
And guess what: I’m not alone… guys like Justin Stanford are also out there making things happen in Cape Town, and if this trend continues, Cape Town in particular is going to become the Silicon Cape that I dream of!
TechCrunch gave us some good coverage today and explains a bit about what’s we’re up to – worth a read!
Thanks to everyone for their support thus far – the future certainly looks bright for SynthaSite!
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Comments On This Post
February 18, 2009 at 8:18 am
Congrats Vinny. It's always great to see one of our own succeeding so well.
February 18, 2009 at 8:31 am
Congrats to Vinny and team.
Its good to see you can take Vinny out of South Africa but you can't take South Africa out of Vinny
February 18, 2009 at 8:36 am
Fantastic work Vinny. It's a fantastic thing to see South Africans doing some well on a global scale. And thanks for the mention!
February 18, 2009 at 12:41 pm
nice going, I've heard a lot about synthasite and now i'm off to try it,
cape town, south africa
February 18, 2009 at 2:07 pm
Congratulations. This is a very inspiring news at this very dark period. Success stories like this gives us hope that good ideas will succeed even in the midst of recessions when visionaries carry the visions out. Nice one!
February 19, 2009 at 2:02 am
Congratulations to Vinny and the Synthasite team! I still remember the good old days when we were working from the same office, and now you guys have definitely gone a long way! Very well done!
February 19, 2009 at 4:47 am
Good job!
I hope Charlene sleeps better at night.
February 20, 2009 at 1:27 am
nice going, I've heard a lot about synthasite and now i'm off to try it
February 20, 2009 at 4:18 pm
I think maybe that during a dark economic time such as we are in now that companies with a sound business model will survive.Getting such an investment in these times is a testament to Synthasite having a sound foundation …If more companies operated in such a manner not nearly as many would go under…As a Synthasite user this news makes me feel secure about my own foundation being stable since part of it is resting on Synthasite.
February 20, 2009 at 10:23 pm
[...] again, South Africa born bread Vinny Lingham continues to inspire. SynthaSite brings in a whooping $20m further investment to expand the [...]
February 22, 2009 at 6:10 am
This is a big investment and I think we should expect big improvements on synthasite services… congrats..
February 22, 2009 at 9:05 pm
Congratulations Vinny!
I have created many sites using synthasite, I first found it thru their adsense campaign, nothing but great things to say about them.
February 23, 2009 at 11:18 am
Well Done
You deserve it!
February 24, 2009 at 11:20 am
wow! all i can say is well done buddy! I saw synthasite through the who's who website and i thought it was brilliant concept. well done getting so far. i wish future success for you. Hopefully one day businesses like mine(http://www.autoporters.co.za) will flourish because of your stepping stones.
cheers!
March 1, 2009 at 4:13 pm
You made the Sunday Times "Money" section this week. http://twitpic.com/1rxhi. I would've placed this in the "Business" section, but R200 million is R200 million. Serious "Money" by anyone's standards.
March 9, 2009 at 3:09 am
It's always great to see one of our own succeeding so well. well done getting so far. i wish future success for you.
March 12, 2009 at 4:03 am
[...] founded by South African Vinny Lingham that focuses on web publishing and designing, which recently recieved a $20 million [...]
March 15, 2009 at 7:45 pm
Dang… I am reall happy for them! It's not easy have success in this period…
March 18, 2009 at 6:58 pm
There will always be some businesses that do extremely well in a downturn and it looks like you have one. Helping other people to develop their businesses online is good for everyone.
April 2, 2009 at 10:50 am
$20M, wow that's a big amount.. best of luck Vinny
April 12, 2009 at 5:16 pm
that's great congratulation Vinny great tools use here well thanks for the informative post otherwise concept its brilliant ….keep it up
April 15, 2009 at 8:43 pm
congrats vinny , $20m investment is not easy in this period , I really like your site yola (sythasite) , its really helpful to me to create my own website.
I just tried yola its very easy to me , thanks for yola.
April 22, 2009 at 11:41 pm
[...] free websites are on their way out? Clearly, I have a lot vested in this industry (especially since Yola (previously SynthaSite) recently raised $20m in funding for a “free websites” business model) – so I thought that I should at least try to [...]
May 25, 2009 at 11:36 am
You deserve it.
Congrats and Well done Vinny.
June 5, 2009 at 11:07 pm
From what i read on another blog of yours is that it is really difficult starting a business in South Africa, especially if you fail. So for it looks like you are doing well. Congrats!
June 12, 2009 at 10:56 pm
Wow – that's a nice amount, especially in this market and downturn. You must have a nice product. I will have to check this out.
June 18, 2009 at 11:18 pm
You really do deserve it your articles are pretty good
June 29, 2009 at 2:27 am
Congratz Viny, you are alway doing a great job..
June 29, 2009 at 8:01 am
Congratulations Vinny!
wow..
fantastic work
July 2, 2009 at 10:06 am
It does fantastic jobs Vinny..
July 2, 2009 at 2:20 pm
it does hugee money of investment.. hope that SynthaSite can make a lot of jobs opportunities with that money.
July 4, 2009 at 9:07 pm
Congrats and keep up the good work
July 7, 2009 at 8:24 am
I do happen to want to read about Paris Hilton, or other mindless stuff, I can be assured that it'll only arrive in the print press 3 days later (or on Sunday! in some cases).
July 7, 2009 at 8:53 am
I have to admit feeling peeved, not only for the efforts I put into my own blog (blog! not publication! I am not a journalist!) but for all the other quality blogs I read – of course there are far too many crappy blogs out 'here', but then we do choose to only get feeds from blogs whose point of view we value.
July 7, 2009 at 8:54 am
It's so much fun to watch the gnashing of teeth and wailing as the corporate ships are run through by unregulated freedom of speech. Bullard's quite clearly resorting to sensationalism, that dirtiest of rags hanging from the arse of tabloid culture, in an effort to scrape some web2.0 under his nails. Sis, David. I thought better of you for too long, it seems.
July 7, 2009 at 8:55 am
The moment he decides to blog (some think he already has) he is guaranteed a massive readership. Hwy? Cause all thise deriding him have giving him the traction!
He can't lose! Ssshhhh!!!!
July 7, 2009 at 8:55 am
David's error is that he extrapolates that onto the more serious blogs and then brings in the journalism snipe. Vinny's error is he buys into David's trap.
July 10, 2009 at 4:31 am
nice going, I've heard a lot about synthasite and now i'm off to try it
July 20, 2009 at 7:57 am
wow 20M for that site is a waste. I can't imagine them ever recouping that investment!
July 22, 2009 at 9:27 am
You really do deserve it your articles are pretty good. It's a fantastic thing to see South Africans doing some well on a global scale. And thanks for the mention!
July 22, 2009 at 9:40 am
Congrats to Vinny and team. There will always be some businesses that do extremely well in a downturn and it looks like you have one. Helping other people to develop their businesses online is good for everyone.
July 25, 2009 at 11:12 am
Looking very nice site and provides good latest updated matter to us.good, keep up it.
July 25, 2009 at 11:12 pm
Congratulations Vinny!
I have created many sites using synthasite, I first found it thru their adsense campaign, nothing but great things to say about them.
July 26, 2009 at 9:07 pm
it does hugee money of investment.. hope that SynthaSite can make a lot of jobs opportunities with that money.
July 27, 2009 at 8:32 am
i found this informative and interesting blog so i think so its very useful and knowledge able.I would like to thank you for the efforts you have made in writing this article. I am hoping the same best work from you in the future as well. In fact your creative writing abilities has inspired me.
July 29, 2009 at 5:34 pm
This is my first time hearing about synthasite I'm looking more into it thanks for the post.
August 3, 2009 at 6:45 am
Congratulations Vinny!
I have created many sites using synthasite, I first found it thru their adsense campaign, nothing but great things to say about them.
August 5, 2009 at 1:53 pm
Wow!!..salute to you brother..its really inspire me..your article very informative…
August 6, 2009 at 1:49 pm
"I’m very proud to be able to announce that during what looks like the deepest economic crisis of recent history, SynthaSite’s investors are so confident of our success, that they have increased their investment by a further $20m (R200m).
It is admirable that depite the current crisis in the economy, SynthaSite's investors increased their investments. It is such a great feat.
"The funny thing is that our business is partially recession-proof, in that as people get retrenched, they start their own small businesses, and therefore need websites."
How can you say that your business is recession-proof?
August 13, 2009 at 6:08 pm
Oww thanks very loll..ssv
August 16, 2009 at 3:22 pm
thank you for sharing
August 28, 2009 at 6:22 am
The last sentence was also a great quote to live by: “You have to know what’s right for your company, and build your plans accordingly.” This is so true in a small business, I just might have to borrow this motto in the future. Thanks for the info!
August 28, 2009 at 6:23 am
This is the exit type I prefer. I consider myself a startup freak. Things changes at a certain point, and as it grows it becomes hard to stay fresh and creative as a company. I like to start and split.
August 28, 2009 at 6:23 am
The “tight budget” is a must. And I totally agree about “getting on the radar screen” early. Remember Apple Computer in the 80s? That’s exactly what they did.
August 28, 2009 at 6:23 am
I didn’t realize getting acquired was such an important goal for so many businesses. Also, I hate to admit it, I didn’t know what an “exit” even was before reading this post and subsequently reading further on another website. Now it all makes sense!
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