Sachin Kamdar moved from teaching school math to founding Parse.ly
This week, Sachin Kamdar announced that Parse.ly, which he co-founded, was acquired by WordPress VIP. The purchase price was not disclosed.
Parse.ly offers visual data tools which enable creators, marketers and developers to analyze audience interest in their content across smartphones, laptops and other digital platforms. Clients, from copywriters to chief marketing officers, can use the insights to attract more readers, prove the value of the content to readers and advertisers, and deliver tailored content to improve traffic and financial results.
Initially serving media businesses, Parse.ly’s clients include The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Wired and Slate. The visual analytical data enables Slate to have “a unified real-time look at every single major traffic source. Without Parse.ly, I wouldn't have bet in a million years that that story did as well as it did,” says Mark Morgioni, director of research at the online magazine.
Parse.ly now serves entertainment, financial services, technology, non-profit and other organizations. Clients pay a fee which starts at $12,000 a year for the basic service.
"We're an analytics company, but the closer we can get to the content creation process, the better intelligence we can provide," Kamdar told Axios, explaining the sale of his company. To achieve this goal, Parse.ly built integrations with Content Management System companies, notably WordPress which powers over 40% of websites.
WordPress VIP (WPVIP) is a tool for creating websites and other digital content used by Facebook, Salesforce, Spotify, Microsoft, National Basketball Association, CNN and other organizations. Clients pay an annual fee to WPVIP, which starts at $24,000.
Parse.ly and WPVIP will together serve about 800 customers. Using tools from both, clients will be able to figure out, for instance, which content leads to purchases of their branded goods. Parse.ly’s roughly 50 employees, including co-founders Sachin Kamdar and Andrew Montalenti, will join WPVIP.
WPVIP is owned by Automattic, whose other digital businesses include Tumblr; LongReads and WordPress, which is used by professionals and small businesses to build websites and blogs. Automattic has more than 1,300 employees in 79 countries, including 53 in India. In 2019, Automattic raised $300 million from Salesforce Ventures, at a reported valuation of $3 billion.
In 2009, Sachin Kamdar and Andrew Montalenti, former roommates at New York University, founded Parse.ly. The company’s website states: “we value actions over experience, innovation over tradition, results over potential, and simplicity over intricacy. We distribute our work, we communicate openly, we treat each other with respect, we value results, not effort, and we enjoy what we do.”
Parse.ly, whose office is listed in Beaverton, Oregon, raised $13 million from venture funds, according to Crunchbase. Kamdar, who was the chief executive, will continue to lead a team of content analytics experts and meet with clients.
Earlier, Kamdar was a New York City Teaching Fellow, using assessment data and surveys to personalize curriculum for students in math and economics. He then started an education technology consulting company that, using his teaching experience, helped build, implement, and manage a curriculum personalization system across schools in New York City.
Kamdar earned a BA in economics from New York University (NYU) and a master's in education from Pace University in New York.
Co-founder Andrew Montalenti, the head of product, was the founding chief technology officer. After graduating in Computer Science from NYU, he worked as a software engineer at Morgan Stanley. Both Kamdar and Montalenti are based in New York City.
Jason Parikh, CFO of Parse.ly, fishes and plays the guitar
Parse.ly’s chief financial officer is Jason Parikh. Earlier, he held senior finance positions at three publicly traded companies and three venture-backed companies. Parikh has experience in equity offerings, debt financings, and several acquisitions, helping raise over $500 million in capital for both public and private companies.
A CPA, Parikh earned a B.S. in Accounting from the University of Maryland. He enjoys cooking, boating, fishing, and playing the guitar.
Can Sachin Kamdar continue to abide by Parse.ly’s founding principle
Sachin Kamdar and Andrew Montalenti say they founded Parse.ly with the mantra “Build the company that we’d love to work for.” Though not a business idea, they add, it was the guiding principle for all decisions, from financing and business models, to culture and operating principles.
Will this principle continue to guide their decisions, and will they be able to implement it, as part of Automattic which has more than 1,300 employees?