Email marketing startup ConvertKit raises $1.8m from large group of angel investors

ConvertKit, an email marketing company for professional bloggers, has just announced they closed a funding round of $1.8 million from a large group of angel investors. While a traditional angel round may include up to 20 investors, this round was far over-subscribed with over 6,500 investors participating. This new funding will be used to expand the growth, engineering, and customer success teams.

Instead of equity these investors — commonly referred to as “customers” — are given access to the ConvertKit software product each month.

This revolutionary new model of small monthly investments makes it accessible to investors who may not have tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars on hand. Rather than deal with wire transfers, ConvertKit accepted credit card payments through the payment processing startup Stripe.

“With a beautiful product and 15–20% month over month growth, ConvertKit is in a great position to lead the blogging market…”

Alright, I can’t continue writing like a generic press release any more. If you haven’t picked up on it already, this is a joke. We didn’t raise funding (Want to know what we did instead? Read this article).

Instead we focused on serving our existing customers, got our expenses under control, and started focusing on profits. You know, like a traditional business.

This post isn’t to brag about what we’ve built or how we’ve accomplished the growth. Instead I just want to say thank you.

Thank you to our customers. We didn’t build the company — you did. $29 at a time you enable us to work each day on the product we love. We get to work remotely from our favorite cities around the world. Working to help bloggers turn pro and make a full-time living from their work.

So as you see blog posts or hear podcast interviews about what I did, or how the ConvertKit team accomplished X, I want you to know your part in it. We couldn’t do it without you taking a bet on a small company trying to change the industry.

The term “angel investor” makes it sound like the investor saved the company. Like an angel came down from heaven. For most investors I think that gives too much credit to their role. The company would have done just fine without them. It’s different with customers. We wouldn’t exist without you.

We’re proud to be independent and customer funded.

Thanks for being a part of the ConvertKit family and enabling us to build what we love.

Seriously, you’re amazing.

Originally published at nathanbarry.com.