Seth Sternberg: From Nothing to Something at Meebo

Terrific post on Techcrunch this evening by Seth Sternberg, the Founder of Meebo. True seed funded Meebo and it has been a privilege for us to be involved with the company. Seth extols the virtues of team, product, and launch. . all three fundamentals to our investment approach at True.

Great people create great products.
Seth, Sandy and Elaine have always demonstrated a remarkable ability to build and release truly elegant product. They have done so cleanly, crisply, and quickly. Meebo runs fast, looks good, and flawlessly connects you from any browser to all major IM networks. It does this (and more) in seconds, and the Meebo design has set the bar high for the minimalist, functional, and appealing designs of the Web 2.0 movement. We were honored to be Meebo’s Seed investor because we recognized that Seth, Sandy and Elaine needed a trusted partner who could move quickly and share their belief in their product.

Great people envision great markets for those products.
What you see in Seth’s post is the same thing that made our initial investment decision so easy: Seth has incredibly clear vision. This vision served him well not just for where saw the future or IM and web-based messaging systems, but it was essential in how he saw the company start and evolve. The reason he stated for raising his first $100K was to get the servers he had bought off of his personal credit cards so he and his team could focus more on product. It wasn’t to hire, buy office space, or “scale marketing.” Seth knew where the market was heading, and he knew he had to get Meebo out in the world.

Great people can change the way we live and dramatically improve our world.
Meebo’s products connect millions of people on a daily basis with one another instantly, seamlessly, and beautifully. Meebo was also among the first Web 2.0 companies with significant consumer traction, and the company served as an early beacon of hope to many, many entrepreneurs who saw the power of a new breed of web applications through Meebo’s example. As a VC, it was common to hear others say, “you know, we want to be the Meebo of _____” or, ” we envision great design, just like Meebo.” The entrepreneurs inspired by Meebo went on to build great product, create jobs and opportunity to the communities around them, and provide all of us with additional consumer capability and choice. With Seth’s recent blog post, he’s hard at work inspiring more entrepreneurs.

Thank you Seth.

At a time when there appears to be so much confusion in Washington about where jobs and innovation comes from, it is refreshing to see such a clear example of creation and inspiration at Meebo.