Video creation startup Animoto has seen some major growth lately, on the heels of a number of partner announcements and the launch of a new iPhoneapp that automatically edits videos on the device. With all that happening, it’s also made a significant addition to its board of directors: Internet veteran Brad Garlinghouse.
Animoto now has more than 4 million registered users, after adding 200,000 new users just last month. The company isn’t just adding new users, however — it’s seeing huge amounts of usage from its customer base. In March, Animoto users created more than 900,000 video slideshows, which makes it the busiest month to date. It’s also monetizing that usage: the startup has more than 100,000 paying subscribers now.
With that momentum underway, Garlinghouse, former product guy at AOL and Yahoo, has joined the board. Garlinghouse is probably best known for his Peanut Butter Manifesto, which he penned while at Yahoo in 2006. That memo called for a shakeup of the Internet company, which still struggles from a lot of the same issues today.
Garlinghouse will step onto the board as an independent director, where he’ll join Animoto co-founders Brad Jefferson and Jason Hsiao; Ben Spero, Managing Director of Spectrum Equity; Matt Mcllwain, Managing Director of Madrona Venture Group; and Tom Yellin, co-founder, President and Executive Producer of The Documentary Group.
For Animoto, the big struggle now will be to grow and scale its business gracefully. The company has doubled its number of employees over the last year. That includes a new VP of finance, VP of marketing and VP of engineering. Having a heavy hitter like Garlinghouse — who has seen the growing pains of Yahoo and dealt with turmoil at AOL — could help provide some guidance.
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