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b5media Takes Funding

Posted By Darren Rowse 5th of October 2006 Pro Blogging News 0 Comments

Just a short post to point to some exciting news for me and the blog network that I’ve been a part of building over the past 12 months – b5media.

Today we closed a deal with two Canadian VC companies (Brightspark and JL Albright) for a round of financing.

You can read about it more at our main blog and from the VC’s perspective over at Rick’s blog.

It’s an exciting time for us as a network. While I can’t believe how fast we’ve grown in our 12 months (we’ve been so busy with this deal and the network that we didn’t even have time to post acknowledging our birthday) this injection of investment will allow us to ramp up what we’re able to do an extra few notches.

To use a Spinal Tap analogy – we’ve been growing at a volume of 10 but this takes us up to 11 (or more).

The money allows us to do a number of things for the network and our bloggers. This isn’t the post to outline them all – but I thought I’d share the news with you as it’s both something I’m excited about but also is somewhat relevant to our topic here.

How does it impact me directly?

The main thing is that from today I’m the VP of Training and Development at b5media. This is something that over the next few months I’ll be transitioning into in a full time capacity.

My role will largely be working with our wonderful team of bloggers in a capacity that will help them to take their blogging to the next level. In a sense I’ll be doing a lot of what I do here at Problogger and have done consulting with bloggers but focussing more upon our team.

As part of my role I’ll continue to develop ProBlogger (as it is part of the network) but some of my other blogs will be transitioned into others writing on them to allow me more time to work on b5 directly.

I’m sure a lot more will be said about b5 taking this step – but I’ll leave my two cents worth at this for the time being.

About Darren Rowse
Darren Rowse is the founder and editor of ProBlogger Blog Tips and Digital Photography School. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Comments
  1. Congrats to you and the rest of the B5 team. A well deserved boost for (what seems to be, from the outside) a well deserved company.

  2. Great news, Darren! Hopefully your VP gig will still allow you enough time for Problogger and DPS.

  3. What great news for a great group – and congrats to you too!! I’m thrilled to see your hard work paying off for you and everyone whose blogs you have helped to develop with b5. I’m excited to see where you are able to take this company and continue to look forward to sharing the blogosphere with you and the rest of your great bloggers (especially the mommy bloggers I’ve gotten to know so well!! :) )

  4. Great stuff, Darren … congrats to all the b5 team. I think this is only the first step of bigger things to come.

  5. That’s big news! I think you will make a big impact in your new role, it is something that can have a very wide impact. Who would have imagined such an investment just a few years ago?

  6. Wow, congrats to you and the gang at b5 Darren…well deserved.

  7. Congrats Darren, great, HUGE news.

  8. Congratulations to all of ya! Great work!

  9. I get the feeling that we’re doing scarily similar work at the moment!

  10. Great news, Darren. Congrats to all. Can’t wait to see what’s in b5’s future!

  11. Hey Darren
    Congrats first off.

    Then.. did you know that your pagerank for problogger is the same as drudgereport?

    Pretty awesome when you think he is being accused of influencing the loss of the election for John Kerry more than Kerry himself.

  12. Congratulation Darren…great news

  13. Hey Darren,
    i think the round of VC funding only validates what the rest of the blogging world has been attuned to for the longest time.

    Wow, I’m really excited to see how b5media will lead the charge in the blogsophere.

    just two words: bloody brilliant.

    cheers!
    Andrew Wee
    http://www.WhoIsAndrewWee.com

  14. Congratulations. b5’s growth has been scary (in a good way, if that makes sense). Well done to all.

  15. thanks all. Yes it has been a bizarre and wonderful ride (scary too). Four years ago I hardly heard of blogging let alone making a living from it and co-owning a company attracting this type of investment. Funny how things happen!

  16. Congratulations, Darren. Well deserved.

    It’s good to see you badging yourselves as a “new media network targeting the mainstream via vertical-specific content”. Just the job ;-)

  17. […] We hear that Rick will become Chairman, Brightspark will have a member on the board, a new Head of Sales will be taken on, and that Shel Israel has been advising them since the beginning of the funding project. He will join the business in an advisory capacity. Aaron and few other b5 stalwarts are going fulltime in the business. Darren is to be VP for Training and Development, eventually in a fulltime capacity. […]

  18. Hey Congrats Darren.. Way to go!!!!

    Just wanted ur views on a post I did on some Blog SEO tips..

    http://anthonysmirror.blogspot.com/2006/10/seo-tips-for-blogs-and-bloggers.html

  19. Well done Darren. Now for the next 12 months.

  20. Congrats ! :)
    Hope you will be able to post something like this(upgrade ?:D ) after another 12 months ;)

  21. […] Official announcement at b5media. Thoughts from Rick Segal of J.L. Albright Venture Partners Living to Do What You Want to Do (or why b5media is the best funded company around) b5media VC funding coverage b5media Takes Funding google_ad_client = “pub-9434882901267107”; google_ad_width = 300; google_ad_height = 250; google_ad_format = “300x250_as”; google_ad_type = “text_image”; google_ad_channel = “9838344704”; google_color_border = “EBFACE”; google_color_bg = “EBFACE”; google_color_link = “7ebc0b”; google_color_text = “000000”; google_color_url = “7ebc0b”; […]

  22. […] with del.icio.us   |   Email this entry   |   TrackBack URI   |   Digg it   |   Track with co.mments   |     |   Cosmos Click here forcopyright permissions! Copyright 2006 Mathew Ingram […]

  23. First off congrats to you and b5media. And now you’re the VP of Training and Development? So what will the new VP with venture capital be buying himself as a promotional gift? ;-)

    Again, congrats and I’m sure everyone here is looking forward to the next 12 months!

  24. Congrats to you and the b5 team, Darren. I know you all will use the VC funding wisely. Exciting times!

  25. Congratulations; well done, and well deserved!

  26. […] Darren Rowse explains a bit to his readers how and why we took funding. […]

  27. […] In an interview with the Blogging Times, Duncan discussed what the team plan to use the money for, which appears to include a salary for Mr. Riley, among other things (b5 also plans to spend some of the money compensating its bloggers). More on the deal from Problogger and b5media partner Darren Rowse. […]

  28. Wow! Congratulations, Darren! I think you’re ideally suited for this new position.

  29. Darren – Congrats! to you and Jeremy and your entire team.

  30. […] Darren Rowse, another b5media co-founder, also weighs in. […]

  31. […] Phil has a post that got me chuckling a little. It’s called Get global – literally and it bounces off b5’s VC funding that we announced earlier in the week and mentions the way we as a founders team of four (Jeremy, Duncan, Shai and myself) are yet to meet. […]

  32. […] Darren Rowse just posted over at problogger.net that the blog network he is helping to build b5media just got funding! […]

  33. […] You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your ownsite. […]

  34. […] Official announcement at b5media. Thoughts from Rick Segal of J.L. Albright Venture Partners Living to Do What You Want to Do (or why b5media is the best funded company around) b5media VC funding coverage b5media Takes Funding […]

  35. […] You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your ownsite. […]

  36. […] You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your ownsite. […]

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