How-to website SpongeFish raises $2M
SpongeFish, a website featuring user-generated how-to content, has raised $2 million in a first round of funding, according to VentureWire.
I have to admit that I’m a bit baffled by the plethora of how-to websites, but there does seem to be real interest here. In our coverage of how-to video site MindBites, chief executive Jason Reneau said the market’s big enough for multiple sites to survive.
SpongeFish claims to stand out by offering the best content in the widest range of formats — not just videos, but documents, photos and other rich media too. Users can rate the usefulness of each lesson.
SpongeFish has some fun with the concept too — right now, it’s hosting a “So good it could be Mom’s” life advice contest. Despite its lack of real-world practicality, my favorite entry is probably “How to enjoy a grizzly bear attack.”
It seems like the San Francisco-based company’s success will come down to the the breadth and intelligence of its user community. The site only officially launched this week, but it’s been up for several months, and had 250,000 unique visitors in February.
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About the Author, Anthony Ha
Anthony is VentureBeat's assistant editor, as well as its reporter on enterprise technology, cloud computing, and tech policy. Before joining VentureBeat in 2008, Anthony worked at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing. He attended Stanford University and now lives in San Francisco. Reach him at anthony@venturebeat.com. You can also follow Anthony on Twitter.