Medium Adds to Board, Bank Account
Two weeks ago, we announced how we’re making our platform better for professional publishers, including brands. The response to that has been amazing. Hundreds of publishers have moved to Medium, joining our launch partners The Awl, Pacific Standard, and (soon) Bill Simmons’ new project, The Ringer.
Exciting things keep happening for us. Here are two more:
1.We’re welcoming two friends to Medium’s board of directors: Ben Horowitz and Judy Estrin.
Ben, I’ve known for years. Like many entrepreneurs, I’ve learned a ton from his writing. And I’ve been lucky enough to occasionally go to him for advice about hard things. Andreessen Horowitz’s decision to invest in Medium last year was a big deal for us. Ben’s decision to double-down and take a board seat means we’ll benefit even more from his energy, guidance, and wisdom.
Judy, I met more recently. I was blown away when we first sat down to talk, not only by her (seriously intimidating) background but also her clarity of thought about the media world of today. She’s a serial entrepreneur and bona fide Internet pioneer. She’s served on the boards of Disney and FedEx, and is now the CEO of JLabs. Since her early days at Stanford, developing the building blocks of the Internet, Judy has been at the forefront of technology and business. We’re thrilled that she is bringing her intellect and vision to our board.
Side note: After more than two years of providing us with incredible insight and assistance, our friend David Sze from Greylock will be stepping down from our board. His partner at the firm, Josh Elman, will remain, as will my long-time collaborator, the one-and-only Biz Stone.
2. We’ve raised more money in the form of a Series C financing of $50M, led by Spark Capital. I’ve partnered with Spark before, via Bijan Sabet, at Twitter. This time, my former colleague from Twitter, Kevin Thau — now a partner at Spark — is leading their involvement. I’m very happy to work with those guys again.
Our friends from Andreessen Horowitz are also participating significantly in this round, as is GV (formerly Google Ventures), and myself.
Though we raised our Series B of $57M just last September, we decided to bolster our resources now given the demand we’ve seen for the vision we are building toward. We’re dedicated to building the best platform ever created for great ideas and stories to be launched into the world — and for people to find those stories and ideas that matter to them. Which means, as far as we’ve come, we have much more to do.
We welcome you to join us as a participant, publishing partner, or as part of our team.
