Software Invention Takes Three Student Entrepreneurs To Silicon Valley

UNIVERSITY PARK, PA (June 14, 2007) – Three Penn State students recently turned a class project into a tech start-up already worth millions of dollars, taking them from Happy Valley to Silicon Valley in a matter of months.

Chris Fanini, David Rusenko, and Dan Veltri, a Smeal College of Business finance major, are the trio behind Weebly.com, a free Web-based application that allows users to quickly and easily create Web sites by clicking and dragging images, video content, text boxes, and other elements onto their pages.

In January 2006, Rusenko started developing a tool to help students create Web portfolios as part of one of his classes. Sensing that his software creation could be used for more than just his class assignment, he brought in Fanini and Veltri to further develop and market the software.

Now, 18 months later, the trio has relocated to San Francisco, and along the way, they've signed up more than 40,000 users, secured $650,000 from angel investors, and turned down a multi-million dollar offer to buy them out.

A large part of Weebly's success is due to Y Combinator, a venture capital group that gives seed money to tech start-ups and puts them through an intense three-month immersion program in Silicon Valley. The program put the Weebly founders in touch with other young tech entrepreneurs, got them face time with investors, and immediately immersed them in the Silicon Valley business culture.

They also got some help from Penn State alumni. One alumnus in particular, Matt Brezina, connected the students to potential investors and recommended apartments. Other alumni have helped in various other ways, too. "The Penn State connections are very strong out here," Veltri said.

Fanini and Rusenko typically handle most of the product development, while the majority of the day-to-day business tasks fall to Veltri, including much of the marketing, finances, and even procuring health insurance for the founders and future employees. Veltri and Fanini manage to balance their work responsibilities while completing coursework to graduate in August. Rusenko just graduated in May.

For now, the trio is expanding the feature set of Weebly, adding new content elements, designs, and customization options, while also focusing on distribution of the product. Weebly will soon allow users to register domain names, making the site a one-stop destination for anyone who wants build a Web site from scratch with a new domain.

They're currently in talks with several companies regarding integration, and hope to hire another full-time developer and designer soon. Ultimately, the three envision their company being absorbed by a larger corporation or potentially existing as a standalone company.

To create a Web site using Weebly, users must register at www.weebly.com. After registration, novice Web designers can immediately begin designing their Web sites, utilizing various design templates and importing graphics and videos from sites like YouTube. Weebly.com will even host the Web site for free.