Zaarly grows by $14 million in funding and Meg Whitman
- Sabrina Staires
- Bo Fishback has reasons to smile.
When The Pitch wrote about locally founded e-commerce startup Zaarly in September, the Kansas City office was positively buzzing with good vibes and excitement. The peppy, relentlessly optimistic staff told us that Zaarly, which allows users to post requests for anything (a sandwich delivered, somebody to mow a law, etc.) to a website, which other users then fulfill for a set price, could be the next big Web company and social experiment.
CEO Bo Fishback, who used to work for Kauffman Labs, wasted no time in lining up money and celebrity backers. In two days, he and his business partners had accumulated $1 million and the support of Ashton Kutcher, tech blogger Michael Arrington, and the investment fund started by Groupon’s founders.
At the time, Fishback admitted that all startups are a gamble. He compared his young business with eBay, noting that while only a small percentage of people use the online auction site, it facilitated $100 billion in transactions last year. “But we have a shot of being bigger than that [eBay], actually. We also have a shot at being out of business in a year.” It looks like things are leaning toward the former. The company announced today that it had banked an additional $14.1 million in funding from a handful of investors.
