Investing in our future (again!)

That’s a pretty awesome list of partners, but why would we take a second round when we are still profitable? Let’s take a little trip back in time to roughly two years ago to find out.

Taking that first funding step

It was the summer of 2019 and founders Dave, Sara, Roustem, Natalia and I were discussing whether or not we should partner with Accel and take our first ever funding round.

1Password was successful, profitable and growing so we didn’t need the money. We also knew that we had something truly special and wanted to make sure we weren’t going to screw things up. At the same time 1Password needed to grow in order to help as many people as we wanted to, and we would need help and guidance to do so.

Partnering with Accel would give us the mentoring we needed and the investment itself would ensure they were dedicated to our success and provide a nice financial cushion should we need it. And to be completely honest, it would reduce some risk for us personally as well. It was with some trepidation that we agreed to partner, ensuring we remained majority owners and in full control to guide our future, closing the round at the end of 2019.

Growing and growing up

Since then a huge number of exciting changes have taken place. As a company, we’ve hired a world-class executive team to help the founders and I lead 1Password forward, including:

• Jeannie De Guzman, Chief Financial Officer
• Julian Teixeira, Chief Revenue Officer
• Akshay Bhargava, Chief Product Officer
• Raj Sarkar, Chief Marketing Officer

We’ve grown from 177 people to 473 awesome folks. This has allowed us to greatly expand what 1Password can do to help consumers and businesses alike including:

• Secrets Automation
• 1Password for Linux
• 1Password Events
• 1Password Breach Reports
• Partnering with Privacy.com
• Partnering with Ramp.com
• and much much more

Throughout this period Accel has been a true partner. They’ve always been there to help and guide us while not trying to change who we are as a company. I have to say that we couldn’t be happier with how it has all worked out 🤗.

Accel reaches out again

Accel has similarly been thrilled by our growth and potential and reached out to me a couple of months ago looking to further invest in our future success.

Initially I wasn’t open to the idea as we’re profitable and did not need the money. But investment rounds have some real benefits. They help spread the word that we are an enduring and successful company which attracts both customers and talent. So we gave it further thought and went back to what we valued most from the first round – having smart folks invested in our success who can help and guide us. That, and ensuring we could retain full control of our destiny. If we could accomplish the same here then it would truly make sense for us to proceed.

Our new partners

We started thinking about who we’d want to help and guide us, and created a list of incredible tech leaders who built amazing companies and for whom we had a great deal of respect. We then reached out to see if they were interested in participating as investors in this round. To our delight, most of them were thrilled to participate and invest in 1Password, including:

• Tobias Lütke, Founder and CEO and Harley Finkelstein, President of Shopify
• Stewart Butterfield, Founder and CEO of Slack
• Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar, Co-Founders and Co-CEOs of Atlassian
• Anthony Casalena, Founder and CEO of Squarespace
• Kevin Hartz, Co-founder and Chairman of Eventbrite
• Robert Vis, Founder and CEO of MessageBird

We also reached out to That 70s Show, Punk’d, and Two and a Half Men star, Ashton Kutcher. While Ashton might be best known for his acting, he also has extensive tech investment experience having launched Sound Ventures with Guy Oseary. They, similarly, were fans of what we are trying to build and joined as investors.

Now that is truly an impressive list 🤩.

I am thrilled that these leaders, people I’ve looked up to for many years, believe in us and are investing their money, time, and knowledge in our future.

With Accel at the lead, these incredible investors included, we discussed an amount that made sure we stayed in full control, and the round was a go.

Furthering our partnership

Now, the first question I always get about the round is the numbers, and while those aren’t what matter most to us, they do matter, so here goes. 😊

This second round was an investment of $100 million at a $2 billion valuation, double what it was the last round. These numbers are a touch surreal if I am being honest, especially when I think back on how far we’ve come. But it also reminds me what got us this far and will continue to drive us forward is focusing on and listening to our customers.

Moving forward

Today marks one more step in the journey for 1Password, one that Dave, Sara, Roustem, Natalia and I are excited to share with you. With this latest funding round and experienced leaders at our side, we will continue to improve and grow the products our customers know and love.

We’re humbled and thankful for all of you who have believed in us, supported us, challenged us, and continue to trust us. Thank you. ❤️

Jeff Shiner

CEO