Update: Dave McClure has clarified in a comment how the deal negotiation actually happened:
“We discussed terms via face2face mtgs and phone calls, then confirmed closing via SMS. not exactly revolutionary or all that unusual, except that our f2f meetings occurred after midnight in places like Paris & Munich over drinks ;) good luck Senzari!”
The music service Senzari has taken the opportunity of Geeks on a Plane‘s second trip to Latin America to announce that it has raised $1m in additional funding from 500 Startups and unnamed angel investors.
As we reported, the platform hopes to become a serious competitor to platforms such as Pandora and Rdio, but also traditional radio, thanks to its deep catalogue and social integration, not to mention its social-based features.
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While it is newsworthy to see that the startup now has some more funds to fuel its ongoing expansion, the way the deal was closed is perhaps even more interesting.
According to Senzari, the negotiation was quite unorthodox – which is not too surprising when 500 Startups’ Dave McClure is involved. Following a no-BS policy, McClure tends to go for efficiency above all. Forget about lengthy meetings; this deal was actually closed over texts.
To be fair, McClure and Senzari’s COO Demian Bellumio had already met in person, when they both attended TechTalk at Martin Varsavsky‘s farm in Menorca a couple years ago. Still, they decided to go for text messages to arrange this deal, and here’s some of their conversation:
Saying that the entire deal was closed via SMS would be a bit of an exaggeration, as the message thread also mentions a few quick calls. But still, when was the last time someone texted you that $1m was on your way?
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