Graphic.ly

Graphicly

Type	Private
Foundation date	2007
Headquarters	Boulder, Colorado, USA
Key people	Micah Baldwin (CEO, Co-Founder)
Website	Graphicly.com

Graphicly is a platform for publishers which offers work flow integration, self-publishing, digital distribution, conversion, and promotion for digital content.^[1][2][3] The website was initially a platform for comic books, but now supports children’s books, art books, and magazines.^[4][5][6] Graphicly currently has more than 3,500 publishers and more than 10,000 independent creators.^[7][8]

History

Graphicly was founded in 2007 as "Take Comics."^[1][3][8] The website was part the 2009 class of TechStars, a startup accelerator.^[3][9][10] Micah Baldwin had been a mentor at TechStars since 2007, and after mentoring the Graphicly team through the program, joined the company as founder and CEO.^{[11][12][13][14]}

Steve Ballmer gave the first public demo of Graphicly during Microsoft’s keynote presentation at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show.^[15][16][17]

The company raised a $1.2 million seed round in January 2010, led by DFJ Mercury, with additional investments from Starz Media, David Cohen, Dave McClure, Paige Craig, Jake Nickell, and Chris Sacca.^[2] In January 2011, Graphicly raised an additional $3.8 million in a Series A round from a group led by DFJ Mercury with additional investments from 500 Startups, Dundee VC, Ludlow Ventures, and Venture51.^[1][3][6] In addition to the established angel investors, Graphicly’s advisors include Tim Ferriss, Jay Adelson, and Gary Vaynerchuk.^[7] At the time of the announcement, Graphicly had been downloaded more than 600,000 times.^[1]

In February 2010, Graphicly acquired iFanboy, a comic book community and news platform.^[18] This bolstered the interactive elements of their site, which had already pioneered how comic books were read and shared.^[3] In November 2011, Graphicly acquired Double Feature, a mobile comics reader application.^[19]

In January 2013, Graphicly raised an additional $1 million in funding, bringing the total venture capital investment to $6 million.^[20]

Description

Baldwin described the initial vision for Graphicly as iTunes for comic books.^[21] The company allowed comic book creators to distribute their content digitally through Graphicly’s native app, which is available for the iPhone, iPad, and Android devices.^[1]

The following year, Graphicly shifted the company's focus to their digital publishing platform, which allows authors and publishers to release their books on platforms like the iBookstore, Amazon’s Kindle Store, the Kobo Store, and Barnes & Noble’s Nook Store.^[3][22][23] Baldwin noted that although Graphicly's marketplace strategy had proved successful, the company focused mainly on marketing the highest-selling comics like Spider-Man and X-Men, a departure from their initial goal of helping all publishers, especially independent publishers, gain an audience.^[24] In January 2012, the company unveiled an all-in-one self-publishing platform with automated tools that can convert, distribute and promote image-based content.^{[5][22][25][26][27]} The platform also offers real-time analytics integration, allowing creators to track their content across all the marketplaces.^[26]

Business Model

Publishers pay a flat fee to Graphicly, yet retain full ownership of the revenue stream afterwards.^[22] In the first week after the new platform was released, the company signed up over 1,500 authors and publishers at an average of $650.^[3] Graphicly's user base doubled in the first 6 months after the launch of the new distribution options.^[28] The transition also attracted content creators outside of comic books, and currently 40% of all books submitted through Graphicly are non-comics.^[5][6][29] In an average week, as many as 9 of the 10 top selling graphic novels in the iBookstore are published through Graphicly.^[23]

Together, this has led to higher sales for Graphicly's content creators, and sales outpace the old Graphicly app 5 to 1.^[6] Currently, more than one book is downloaded every minute across Graphicly's network.^[2]

Community

Graphicly hosts an active social community which allows users to comment within the pages of the digital books on the story, artwork, cover art, and overall experience.^[1][8] The discussion allows creators and fans to connect directly, and greatly increases Graphicly's reader engagement.^[1][2][30] The website features a social stream, where users can see activity including recent purchases, comments, and share recent favorites with other users.^[2][31] Baldwin has called the community the biggest driver of growth for Graphicly.^[32]

External links

• Official Website
• Graphicly Twitter

References