Ok, so for those of you having a slow week, wake up, smell the coffee and do a Mexican wave for Vinny and his team at Synthasite! As some of you may know, Vinny Lingham is the CEO and founder of Silicon Valley Web 2.0 Start-up, Synthasite.

Vinny has just secured a Series B round investment of $20 million for Synthasite.com from Luxembourg-based Reinet Fund.

$20 million in a recession?

The news of the investment became widespread within minutes and Vinny has left the online community in a buzz of excitement! News of this enormous investment has left many in disbelieve and the question that seems to be on every one’s lips are “how has Vinny been able to secure a $20 million investment with the current Global economic slowdown?”

Now first off, an investment from a VC fund is a process, not a decision made and executed within a week. Vinny briefed me on this major investment in 2008 already, almost shortly after the shock of Lehman brothers’ crash that left Wall Street shares in turmoil, which saw consumer confidence plummet, in turn creating a spiral effect on our Global Economy. So how has Vinny not only been able to keep the interest of Investors, but also provide them with the trust of growth throughout this very tough period?

The Synthasite recession-proof model

In the first quarter of 2008, I met up with Vinny for coffee and we discussed the future of the online industry and the impact of a “FREE” market. Synthasite’s fundamentals in business remain the same: People and companies everywhere will need websites… today, tomorrow, in 5 years time, weather in a recession or not.

This is where the depth of Synthasite’s business model and the confidence investors have shown in the platform playes key in successfully securing a $20 million Series B round investment (following their Series A round investment of $5 million from the same investors)

The mere confidence the Reinet Fund investors have shown in Vinny and Synthasite to increase their investment by a further $20m, is evident that the Synthasite model is recession-proof in that as people get retrenched, they start their own small businesses, and therefore need websites.

Also a great example to look at is that companies and individuals alike (who would in better days go running to their closest Web development company for a website) are now tightening their belts and looking at cost saving solutions that is fast, simple and user friendly. Synthasite is the solution!

Synthasite is here to stay

It goes without saying that online advertising expenditure has dropped and online ventures that rely solely or even partially on advertising (as with The Times and most other news/media companies) will have a tough uphill battle to keep head above water in 2009.

With that said, I personally believe Vinny has in actual fact turned the recession actualy to Synthasite’s advantage in terms of a user friendly, cheaper and faster Ajax based website creation software/Tool. Also, advertising will in future be carried as a lucrative “Bonus” in Synthasite’s monetization process and I don’t ever see it becoming their core backbone of their business model.

Featured Sites - Created Using SynthaSite!
     

Even with the great software they have pulled off, I think Vinny’s experience, passion and out of the box thinking towards the online business sector (other than that of a mere developer) forms part of the whole package Reinet Fund has invested in. It takes an entrepreneur to build a great online platform, but it takes a serial Entrepreneur to hire an amazing team and turn it in to a lucritive business. This I believe has given Vinny great edge with the investors and the $20 million investment is evident!

Companies that can not only shelter, but shine in a time of recession, are the one’s that is in it for the long run and Synthasite not going anywhere. The amazing team Vinny has put together forms a great part of this whole success story and I believe there’s only greater things to come for Synthasite. I wish you guys all the best and an amazing 2009 lying ahead. 

Hard earned success is sweet! - Rock On Vinny!!

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