Rand Fishkin disclosed he is giving up a small percentage of SEOmoz in exchange for a venture capital investment of $1.25 million from a pair of investors.
Rand said in a recent post to SEOmoz that they have decided to seek outside investment for his popular SEO site and services.
“We literally have a hundred different ideas for tools, search analytics, tracking, guides, resources and more and we’re in a position to recruit help from the best and brightest the industry has to offer… but, we can’t do it alone,” Rand said in his lengthy discussion of the news.
Ignition Partners and Curious Office will be the entities partnering to infuse SEOmoz with venture capital. Rand promised to discuss both VCs in future Whiteboard Friday posts.
The various investment processes, including due diligence, should be over by October, according to Rand. During that time, SEOmoz will formalize, with a board of directors that could include former Google Webmaster Central guru Vanessa Fox, now part of real estate tracker Zillow.
Prior to starting the VC process, SEOmoz’s site architect Matt Inman decided to leave the company. Rand said his departure and the forthcoming venture investment were unconnected.
By the numbers, Rand noted SEOmoz has over 1,200 premium members who access the kind of content the investment should help the site continue to develop.
“While we’re planning to be conservative with the investment (none of the standard, blow-through-the-money-in-6-months then ask for more), we will be able to take some risks and invest in projects that don’t have a guaranteed outcome,” Rand said.
