The Value of Creativity: Adobe Buys Portfolio Platform Behance Reports peg the sale price at around $150 million.
By Jason Fell
Behance, the New York City-based startup that developed a new platform for creative people and teams to share their work, has been acquired by Adobe. The San Jose, Calif.-based software giant is known for its suite of tools for creators, including Photoshop, Indesign and Illustrator.
Though terms of the deal weren't officially disclosed, news reports pegged the sale price at about $150 million.
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Behance was founded in 2006 by Scott Belsky and Matias Corea, a graphic designer. The idea was to give creative individuals the ability to share their designs and projects with the world -- for free and on their own terms. The Behance Network allows users to share their multimedia projects with others in Behance's network, including sites like LinkedIn. With the "ProSite" tool, users can create a portfolio website essentially from scratch, for only about $11 per month.
In all, Behance says it has hosted more than 2.3 million public projects from about 170 countries. Those projects have generated some 33.6 million "appreciations" -- the equivalent of a "like" on Facebook.
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Co-founder Belsky -- who helped manage a leadership development initiative at investment banking firm Goldman, Sachs & Co. before launching Behance -- sat down with BIZ Experiences last year for a video interview. From that conversation, here are Belsky's tips for starting an innovative business:
1. Share ideas liberally. Don't keep all the details of your startup idea secret until they're ready to be "shared with the world," Belsky said. The benefits of getting feedback on your plans and ideas always "outweigh the costs."
2. Iterate rapidly. Being innovative means coming up with wild new ideas. But sometimes those ideas aren't always brilliant. When you have an idea, work hard and fast to make it even better.
3. Be willing to fail. Innovation is about taking risks, Belsky said, and having "a tolerance and a willingness to fail" before you succeed.
