If you’re bootstrapped and growing fast, there’s only so long you can fend off VCs with a stick.
Dyn, the Web infrastructure company in Manchester, NH, said today it has raised a $38 million first round of venture financing from North Bridge Venture Partners. Ric Fulop and Russ Pyle from North Bridge are joining Dyn’s board, along with Jason Calacanis, the angel investor also known for Mahalo, ThisWeekIn, and Weblogs (he did not invest in Dyn, according to All Things D).
Dyn (pronounced “dine”) started back in 2001 and bootstrapped itself to profitability through pluck and hard technical work. The company, which has 170 employees, provides managed DNS (Domain Name System) and e-mail delivery services to customers that include CNBC, Etsy, Salesforce.com, Twitter, Zappos, and recently Zipcar, Spotify, and Zillow. Dyn has made five acquisitions in the past three years, the most recent being Massachusetts-based TZO for $4 million.
The company is led by co-founders Jeremy Hitchcock (CEO) and Tom Daly (CTO), who got started on Dyn while in school at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. It will be interesting to watch what Dyn does with its new cash, and whether answering to VCs ends up changing the culture or direction of the company, for better or worse.
In 2011, Dyn had revenues in the high teens of millions, Hitchcock told me early this year. At the time, he also said the firm had no plans to take a growth funding round or make big changes to its structure. “We could be more profitable, but I think the work-life balance is more than worth it,” he said.
