CEO Justin Anthony co-founded
BrightNest with Chicago-area homebuilder Allen Shulman in 2011.
Based in Denver's RiNo neighborhood, the newly updated home-maintenance website now has eight employees, a number Anthony sees growing to about 12 by the end of 2013. He hopes to hire creative writers and iOS, Ruby on Rails and UI/UX developers and designers as well as a public relations person.
BrightNest is angel-funded to date, but Anthony hopes to close on a Series A round of venture capital by mid-2013, and that could double BrightNest's job growth.
“When we raise our Series A, the hiring picture becomes much different,” he says.
BrightNest offers homeowners tools and tips for maintenance and improvement, with a twist.
“We are making it sexy and do it in a very different voice," Anthony says.
One example of a recent BrightNest post that exemplifies the target tone: “Are your walls ruining your sex life?” (For the record, red is good, but purple is better, says Anthony.)
“Last year was focused on really dialing in the product and figuring out what triggered user engagement,” says Anthony. “For the next six months, we're going to be focused on building the best consumer product possible and shouting about it from the rooftops.”
To this end, BrightNest has inked partnerships to provide AOL, Mint.com and LearnVest with home-related content.
The site is also expanding into multimedia. Produced in-house, the first BrightNest video went live in mid-January, with a plan of new videos on a weekly basis.
“Content is the gateway drug,” says Anthony. “Get them in and they'll get hooked.”
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