Ello has vowed from its inception not to put advertisements on the social network or sell user data, and now the growing site has made that promise legally binding by becoming a public benefit corporation.
"It basically means no investor can force us to take a really good financial deal if it forces us to take advertising," Ello co-founder and CEO Paul Budnitz told the New York Times' Dealbook by phone. "It points us in the right direction, and it protects us."
Still in beta and available by invitation only, Ello has raised $5.5 million in funding from the Foundry Group, Bullet Time Ventures and FreshTracks Capital. Its founders believe the company can remain profitable without ads by using a "freemium" model, where joining the site is free and customizing options cost extra.
FreshTracks, a venture capital firm based in Vermont, invested $435,000 in seeding funding into Ello in March, according to Mashable.
Ello has passed a million users and additionally has a wait list of three million people, making it hot property for would-be investors, Budnitz told Re/code.
"As you can imagine, I've had, like, every VC in the nation in my inbox trying to invest in Ello," he said.
Peaking at 40,000 to 50,000 invite requests every hour, Ello jumped from 90 users in early August to hundreds of thousands within a few weeks.
The site's founders and investors have all signed their names to a letter committing to Ello's mission for zero ads and protected user data.
"This company will never have ads and will never sell user data," Budnitz told Re/code. "We've basically enshrined, in the most powerful legal way possible, our mission into the company."
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