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David Karp's Tumblr raises $4.5 Million
- smoody 18y agoI was browsing the image bookmarking site, weheartit.com and noticed that a lot of people are using Tumblr for redistribution of porn. I'm not passing judgement on that but if they start to do bizdev deals, they're going to have to find a way to curb it IMHO. Some of it is really, really graphic. That aside, they should be proud of their trajectory.
- unalone 18y agoTumblr is pretty open and let people do nearly anything they want to. And they're still making money, so I don't think that the bizdevs are staying away. Considering their eventual plan for profit is selling Pro accounts, I think they can get away with that without killing their business model.
- okeumeni 18y ago$4.5 Million; they deserves more credit than that. We cannot blame them for what people chose to blog for. Not being a YC company should not be a liability on HN. Keep it up guys!!!
- okeumeni 18y agoCongrats David, prove them wrong! I’m amazed that this story don’t get much traction on HN.
- unalone 18y agoHN isn't a big pro-Tumblr site. I know the Tumblr founders are pretty separate from YCombinator (I read Marco's blog, and the only time he's ever mentioned a HN company was when he dismissed Posterous out-of-hand a few months ago), and perhaps it's just disinterest in a company that's so distant from the seed funding mentality that we find here. Oh, well. Tumblr's an excellent service and this is great news for them.
- markessien 18y agoPosterous are going to stop growing then start losing users if they just stick to all these technical fixes and don't fix the social part of their site.
- rantfoil 18y agoWe got lots coming in the pipe. Thanks for the feedback -- had a great discussion here a few weeks ago with unalone about the social aspect of reblogging. I think that will move the needle.
- unalone 18y agoAbsolutely. I've got nothing bad to say about Posterous whatsoever. And I doubt Marco does, for that matter. He was irritated at how TechCrunch announced Posterous as the new Tumblr, which is a fair thing to be irritated at.
- jwesley 18y agoTumblr is for hipsters. Wordpres FTW...
- unalone 18y agoI've used both and I prefer Tumblr. I'm not a fan of straight-out blogging. I like writing lengthy pieces when I've got a chance. For me, a blog ought to be a put-everything-that-doesn't-fit-in-an-essay place. Wordpress is decent for that, but Tumblr makes it very easy for me to share things that I've found and to write about them. I can write a lot in a day and get a bunch of great scraps that focus my eventual piece. Further: all due respect to Wordpress, but Tumblr is beautiful. It's one of the best-designed sites I've ever seen. The great thing about Tumblr is you can use it for anything. You can use it like you would Twitter, you could get images like you would on Ffffound, you can make it into a lengthy posting place, or a portfolio, or a jukebox. It's extremely versatile. And it uses the opt-in approach of seeing people, so you can build whatever community you want and still get fascinating results.
- ahoyhere 18y agoWhat on earth does a little app like tumblr need 4.5 mil for? You could run the company for >10 years off that without ever charging anyone a penny. But how is that a sound investment level?