deftly.vc welcomes LPs Paul/Shikha/Simon [founders, MAZ Systems]

More than a decade ago, after several custom app development projects, Paul and Simon saw an opportunity to productize their work. Joined by Shikha, they started MAZ Systems, a SaaS CMS solution now used by the world's largest media brands. In 2021, the company was acquired by PSG. A few words about their journey:

Our founder story

We were very early in experimenting with iOS app development and quickly realized that people were going to want to consume content on mobile and that media companies needed an easy way to get there. Simon was living in Hawaii, Paul in New York, and they met Shikha, in India, on LinkedIn – an unlikely partnership only possible on the internet! Before we knew it, we were building out a platform that eventually was used by almost every major publisher in the US. MAZ was acquired by Providence Strategic Growth in 2021.

An example of acting deftly

In the early days, before we had proper automation set up, users would upload their files to our website, and then we would manually copy and paste all the text and images into the right format. Then we'd send an email that said, "Your content has been processed!" as if it had been an automated system. From the perspective of the user, the product worked, but it was all Krazy glue and Scotch tape behind the scenes.

Why we joined the deftly.vc community

The best part about doing a startup was realizing the amazing power of the community. We want to participate and help the next generation of founders in the same way we were supported by so many others.

Excited to have your backing. Welcome aboard Paul, Shikha & Simon!