deftly.vc welcomes LP, Clint Smith, [co-founder, Emma]

Clint's initial funding for Emma, a leading email marketing platform, was with a credit card. Emma was acquired by Insight Venture Partners in 2017. A few words about his journey:

My founder story

Will Weaver and I had already teamed up to work on projects together and wait for the proverbial Big Idea to hit. One day, during a meeting in which we pitched some website work only to have our potential client declare, "I think we should spend less on our website, and focus more on getting the word out to people." That very unsuccessful pitch meeting got our wheels turning on how best to help small businesses do just that. From there, Emma was born and we spent years building that initial idea into a company that would eventually help tens of thousands of businesses reach their audiences through better email campaigns.

An Emma "deftly" moment

A marketing friend of ours had convinced us to run an ad in a radio trade publication that read, "Emma - so easy even a CC GM could use it." CC stood for ClearChannel, and the idea was that smaller radio GMs would get it and appreciate the subtle dig, and since ClearChannel itself would never use our product, there was no harm done. One night after the ad ran, I was alone in the office. The phone rang, and the caller ID read "CLEAR CHANNEL." My deftly moment was deciding to actually pick up the phone. :) I did, and somehow they hadn't seen the ad but did want to inquire about using our product. They subsequently became a customer and stayed with us for years. I never asked them about the ad.

Why I joined the deftly community

Arie and I have been friends for a very long time, and co-investors for nearly as long. I have always appreciated his thoughtful process of vetting founders, ideas and plans and am thrilled to support his efforts in a bigger way - and to support the community of talented founders and startups he is assembling.

Excited to have your backing. Welcome aboard Clint!