I’m really proud of my friends at Rally Software . Their business continues to grow very rapidly and they appear to have nailed the intersection of a couple of key trends – the growth of the Agile software development combined with the trendy but important reality of SaaS (“Software as a Service” for those of you living under a rock or in Alaska, like I like to do occasionally.)
Last week Rally closed an $8m financing led by Vista Ventures – this should fund them through profitability. Earlier this week, Ryan Martens – Rally’s founder and CTO – was named a finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the Rocky Mountain region. While I don’t usually put a lot of stock in awards, I’ve been a judge for the Rocky Mountain region in the past and recognize the high level of quality among the various nominees for this particular award.
I’ve said this before, but I don’t think I can say it often enough. If you develop software for a living, take a look at Rally’s stuff. A wide range of companies , from venture-backed companies (such as several of mine like NewsGator, Oxlo , Return Path , and Gold Systems) to large ISVs are now using Rally’s products. I’ve watched the adoption of Rally’s products spread through other VCs portfolio’s – such as my friend Scott Maxwell’s at Insight – it’s pretty fun to see the enthusiasm that Rally’s products coupled with the Agile methodologies can create.