Ark (YC W12) raises big seed round
allthingsd.com
allthingsd.com
This would seem to be a key point. Can anyone provide further details? Facebook hasn't historically shown much inclination to let others into the walled garden: http://petewarden.typepad.com/searchbrowser/2010/04/how-i-go...
Why would Facebook allow this?
But having 9 VC invested in your Company is really not an idea situation. (cf: http://blog.eladgil.com/2012/04/vc-signaling-coming-home-to-...)
I am wondering why they did not want to/could not raise money from one VC only who would have lead the round (with say $3M) with super angels and individuals completing the round. That would have made their Company so much more manageable at the board level...
" - Thefacebook.com is one of the hottest new websites.
- Our numbers are some of the best on the Internet: 1.5-2 billion page views per month, 2.3 million registered users, and 60%+ of the user base comes back every day
"
If you are starting your own company, you should be 120% sure you are building something huge that people want. It's also much harder now to attract engineers then it was back then, which is essentially the main reason you even talk about a round.
I am not saying that you should not be ambitious. It's just that I see so many people boasting huge vision with no traction at all. As you can see in the email above, TheFacebook was indeed a hot website with amazing traction. Their ambition (social graph, platform, etc...) came later, and so many times entrepreneurs think that they need to have the big vision first when their MVP is not used at all.
In the case of Ark, I believe that you have a very interesting product, and that being where you are right now is a very interesting position. I wish you all the success in the world to bring that to fruition and be able to get the traction you need to go to the next level. Good luck! I would love to have coffee with you and hear more about it if you are in the city!