Safewhere was formally founded on May 19, 2006. Since then we have been busy developing our software, recruiting a few more developers, showing at Microsoft TechEd 2006 in Barcelona, making new friends and turning their need into our cash flow. And we are now close to our 1.0.

We have a few customers of which SEB Pension is one and two other financial institutions are almost signing (hubris?) as I write. To us this is really good news, as is the fact that we have secured venture funding to finish product development and initiate broader marketing efforts.

And why is the venture part good news? Shouldn’t we be going like suggested by Joel Spolsky in 2003? That is, pace our investments to match our revenue stream. His post is eloquent and, as always, well argued. The most important point to me is the observation that founders have just one company as opposed to the VCs who have portfolios of companies. In the case of our VC, it’s our one company against their 66! Their bet is hedged and ours is not.

But to us extra capital is a must. We are building a products company, and we want to bring the benefits of all our wisdom and abilities to a lot of organizations all over the place. When you run a consulting company, or maybe even a niche product company, you can afford the luxury of growing your company at the pace of your client base. But when building a software products company catering to every service oriented infrastructure in the world, you are pretty focused on your window of opportunity, your total market, your addressable market, etc. – and not least how to protect your position as you advance.

To us that means develop world class products (= hire software engineers), secure patents (=pay patent attorneys), and acquire a selection of reference customers (=put your money where your mouth is). That is, strategize, execute – and pay up.

So although we may be opening up our own window of opportunity, it still opens up to a crowd all facing the other way (identity management, role based access control). We want to attract the attention of this crowd, show them the great view from the window – and convince them that we will be the best guide for the land that lies beyond. That costs money now – and only later makes so much more. Therefore this first round of venture capital – and therefore also subsequent rounds in the future.