Warburg Pincus Invests $10 Million in Spigit

Well, this is pretty cool. I’m pleased to announce that Spigit has received a $10 million equity investment from Warburg Pincus. The investment will be used for the usual things a growing start-up needs: product development, sales and marketing and program management. Here’s coverage in the New York Times and TechCrunch.

I’ve been with Spigit for 6 1/2 months, during which time I’ve seen firsthand how things have progressed. Both the company and me.

If you’ve ever checked my bio, you’ll know I worked in investment banking from 1996 to 2000. If not for a banking merger that shut down my San Francisco office, I’d likely still be there as a Managing Director, doing financings for companies.

OK, wait. Considering the recent financial market collapse, let me rethink that…

Rather, I moved into technology. And let me tell you, it ain’t easy making the transition from banking to technology. You have zero geek cred (note the name of this blog). Since 2000, I’ve worked for several small technology start-ups. From each of them, I’ve learned a lot. I will say that in Spigit I’ve found a place that nicely combines my MBA company performance orientation with my social software enthusiasm. Innovation management meets Enterprise 2.0.

The team at Spigit is a hard-working one. I’m impressed with the seriousness of purpose each of them brings to the job every day. When we closed the funding this week, our CEO Paul Pluschkell got a couple bottles of champagne for a company toast. After we drank a bit of champagne (not too much, customers reading this blog…), everyone quickly went back to their desks to do work. Dorks. :-p

Which is appropriate. There’s a lot of work to do. I’m looking forward to it.