First, GIFs may have been around seemingly forever, but giphy makes them searchable. And shareable. And discoverable.
Of course, it also helps to be part of betaworks.
Next, it’s also very cool when you can put a new spin on an old technology. And you can make it literally spin, too? Very cool!
d) all of the above are just part of the reason why betaworks, along with Lerer Ventures, RRE Ventures, CAA Ventures and Alphaworks just invested in the company’s Series A.
Founder Alex Chung tells us more and keeps his answers as concise as GIFs themselves.
Tell us about your product or service.
Giphy is how you search, share, and discover gifs. Soon Giphy will let you curate, create, and share every movie/TV scene, clip, moment ever captured.
How is it different?
The gif is an old medium that is being reinvented and Giphy is the top destination on the Internet to find gifs.
What market you are targeting and how big is it?
Everyone who has ever used a polaroid and wished it was a moving picture.
What’s your business model?
Content licensing and sponsored search.
What was the funding process like?
Relatively easy as we are fully backed by Betaworks and were not actively seeking funding.
What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?
Trying to keep the round as small as possible with a surplus of exceptional investment opportunities.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
Every format “owner” has been $1B+ company, YouTube with short videos, Instagram with selfies, Spotify with audio. Giphy is on it’s way to owning the GIF.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
Growth in content and users and some crazy new technology we’ve been working on.
What advice can you offer companies in New York that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
Make your product so compelling that they can’t turn you down.
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
Our growth is doubling every couple of months. We will soon reach the top 100 websites in the world.
On average, what’s the percentage of people who mispronounce your company name in a given day?
50%. The people who are hard Gs versus the softies.
