Mixbook’s success a snap with customized books with social media
- Cromwell Schubarth
- Senior Technology Reporter- Silicon Valley Business Journal
- Email | Twitter | Google+
Mixbook’s founders thought they had a sure thing with
their online photobook service idea back in 2008. But the venture investors they
met with just couldn’t picture it.
“We had 50 venture companies
tell us no before we raised a small $850,000 round from angel investors,” CEO Andrew Laffoon recalled,
adding that the banking and housing collapse back then didn’t help matters. “It
was a much different time to raise money then.”
From that modest start, Palo Alto-based Mixbook became the second-fastest
growing private company in Silicon Valley. Its revenue shot up 550 percent to
$24.93 million between 2010 and 2102, according to Business Journal
research.
Laffoon and co-founder Aryk Grosz originally intended to
create an online yearbook company aimed at students when they approached their
Berkeley entrepreneurship professor with the idea in 2006.
“We knew we could disrupt the traditional yearbook market that had been
around for a very long time and was run by an oligopoly of companies,” Grosz
said.But after doing some market research Grosz and Laffoon realized they had a much larger opportunity. There were other companies offering photobook services, including Shutterfly and Picaboo.
“The big difference with Mixbook is that the experience is so much easier and you can customize the photobooks a lot more. You can really do anything you want,” Laffoon said.
The competition didn’t incorporate the social media and collaboration features that Mixbook features, either.
“You can share what you have designed on Facebook or Picasa,” he said. “Or you can share your work back to the Web. You can also invite your family and friends to collaborate with you.”
Cromwell Schubarth is the Senior Technology Reporter at the Business Journal. His phone number is 408.299.1823.
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