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"Blackboard killer" Instructure.com Closes Initial Funding Round - BYU Founders Close to Deals with Universities
Devlin Daley and Brian Whitmer seem to have hit a vein; local investors agree, and have funded Instructure.com to the tune of $50,000. This will take them through 1 year from now, and into near-complete product development and launch. The team has a meeting with several venture capital firms (vSpring among them) this week, so more deals are likely forthcoming.
After years of dealing with the holes and problems with Blackboard, the software that helps universities around the country manage their students, classrooms, grades, etc., the 2 Computer Science PhD's from Brigham Young University in Provo, UT decided to do something about it. They founded Instructure.com.
Many startups make the mistake of spending too much time developing a product before talking to customers to make sure they're making something that will sell. Instructure.com has done the reverse. They've spent the bulk of their time talking to universities before developing it so that they are sure they are building the right thing. The team just finished a nation-wide tour. As they criss-crossed the country's universities, their strategy was simple. "We just asked the school's CTO's what their frustrations with Blackboard were," Devlin told me in an informal chat on campus. They told us, "If you can fix problems x through y, you've got a deal. We'll try your software."
I'm excited to see what comes of this (and so should the millions of students who use Blackboard). I'll keep you posted on any developments on the story.
Edited for clarity.
Utah Valley Entrepreneurial Forum was great - Dennis Wood from vSpring came
The Utah Valley Entrepreneurial Forum was excellent, as usual. Dennis Wood from vSpring spoke about the process of hiring the right people at the right times in a startup's life. It confirmed some of the things I already knew (in a tech startup, at the beginning all you need is a couple of awesome technical founders and a visionary CEO who's not afraid to go out and make connections, sales, etc.)
Dennis Wood's story is pretty cool. He moved out from CA to SLC to work on an executive search firm startup with his friend. After landing a few major deals (a Coca-Cola executive and a few other big companies' executives), he started to get more attention in the press, etc. He knew some people from the venture capital firm, vSpring, and after hearing them talk over and over again about how important human capital is (ie solid management), he called them up and said, "If you think human capital is so important, why don't you have somebody in the firm who's sole role is to hire management for the companies in your portfolio?" They liked his pitch, and hired him. The rest is history - he's a really nice guy.
He and I sat at lunch together at the UVEF before he gave the keynote address. Before the meeting started, we all go around the room and talk about why we're there and what we're working on. When time came for me to stand up, I said, "I'm with the CEO club at BYU and I'm spearheading an effort to reach out to software entrepreneurs and connect them with the resources/tools/contacts they need to start and build great companies." After the meeting ended, several people came up to me to express their interest in what I was doing.
Business cards from investors and entrepreneurs flooded my wallet. I think I've hit a nerve - and it's really exciting. Today I went out to give my first announcement to a CS class (looking for software entrepreneurs). 5 people responded! In just my first announcement! If I can get the info for 5 software entrepreneurs or future-entrepreneurs every time I make an in-class announcement, we can find some great talent on campus, and help them build some awesome companies. Facebook came out of Harvard, Google out of Stanford. Some awesome software/tech/web companies have come out of BYU also - Omniture for example. I'd like to see the next big thing come out of BYU, and I know the ideas and the people are here. I just have to look hard enough, and I'll find them.
