Personal (www.personal.com) just posted an announcement on our Series A financing round, which was led by Grotech Ventures and Steve Cases’s Revolution LLC, and joined by Allen & Company, Eric Semler of TCS Capital Management, and other angel investors we have known from our days at The Map Network. You can read the announcement at: http://www.personal.com/news
Raising money is never easy, especially for a big, disruptive idea. Making sure those investors truly believe in your idea — and have the passion and commitment to help you see it through — adds even more of a challenge. I think we found exactly the right financial partners, partners who welcome, rather than fear, the challenge of turning the current model upside down and doing right by consumers. I hope people will look back in a few years and have a hard time believing the idea of companies owning and controlling our data was ever seriously considered a viable model.
We had some truly amazing meetings during our fund raising process, including many who flat out opposed our vision or else thought the horses were already out of the barn on privacy and consumers controlling their data (some even had a hand in opening the barn doors). We also heard from a number of investors and senior executives who found the task of changing the current system daunting, but who readily acknowledged that our vision was generally how the world should work. We look forward to helping them be part of the solution.
S.
Shane Green 
Many congratulations!
yes, I know how hard it is, I am also changing the value chain of the financial ‘rating system’ and sadly I have not found that many investors that see the huge opportunity of being a monopoly in the first place AND address the biggest white elephant in the room..
your success even at this stage give us more drive and energy! much appreciated! 😉
@GarethWong
Hi Shane,
Any sneak peaks into Personal’s business model? You have piqued my curiosity.
Cheers,
Nj
This is exactly the model that should be used. I have been evangelizing this model since 2006. I also encountered the same “business focus” vs. “Consumer focused” mentality with my fundraising efforts. You’re fortunate to have found some enlightened investors.
The truth is that the old business models are a function of broadcast technology where the broadcaster/publisher held a privileged (unable to be circumvented) position as audience gatekeeper. The peer-to-peer capability of the internet has fundamentally undermined this business model. The old media channel monopoly and new web service bartering model are at risk to more direct and measurable business models.
However, the biggest challenge still remains – consumer education. After a century of conditioning advocates of the new direct methods need to define a sufficiently simple engagement model to appeal to the masses. To do this the new model needs to efficiently redistribute value in a manner that encourages broad consumer and business participation.
Hi Shane,
I was reading Steven Baker’s Numerati and he talked about Steve Gillmor’s Attention Trust project (wayyyy….back in 2005) How is Personal different than Attention Trust?
Thanks,
Nike