It's official - Vancouver-based content management provider Marqui, Inc. is in receivership and a long list of creditors may be left high and dry. You may remember Marqui banner ads running on Techvibes up until the end of March. Unfortunately we never got paid, so I wasn't surprised to get a package in the mail today from their appointed receiver. Founded in 2000 by Thierry LaVasseur (now with email2), privately-held Marqui - originally Maestro CMS Corp. - employs over 50 designers, developers, salespeople and has an impressive client list 300 strong. 
Some of you may remember Marqui from their controversial blogosphere campaign in 2004. Marqui garnered a huge amount of publicity by paying bloggers to write about them. The program was successful in generating buzz (and VC interest - keep reading) and kicked off a debate among bloggers about whether it was ethical to accept payment for posts. BusinessWeek and Forbes Magazine both took notice, mentioning Marqui in their cover stories on blogging. Founder LeVasseur landed Marqui's first venture capital round in 2003 from Ventures West. In January of 2006, Marqui Inc. raised a $7.5 million Series B round with Ventures West upping its ante and GrowthWorks' Working Opportunity Fund adding $4.2 Million to the mix. The second round brought total investment in Marqui to $11 million. Disclosure: I did NOT get paid to write this post. Image credit: Robin Good
Marqui enables customers to stand out from the crowd by providing innovative web marketing technology that helps align sales and marketing teams... [more]
The first time I heard about Marqui was at the Massive show a couple of years ago. I thought it odd that they were trying to sell blogging software. When you have a kick ass platform like WordPress which cost nothing, it's hard to imagine why one would pay for blogging software.
It seemed like an odd business model to me at the time and when I checked out their site, I wasn't too impressed with the code. I guess my initial gut feeling was telling me something.
I think it's important to note that Thierry has not been with Marqui for nearly 4 years and should in no way be associated with the demise of Marqui.
@Tony - That must be the case. Check out the VERY incorrect Q2 2008 update on Thierry's website - www.thierrylevasseur.com.
(2000) Inventor, Founder & Former CEO, Marqui Inc.
- Marketing Automation Software
- Financing to date: C$12,800,000 (Venture Capital 2003 & 2006)
- Q2 08: doing great!
We're on the long list of creditors and it's not pretty. Marquihas left a lot of local damage in their wake. To name a few:
Backbone Magazine
BCIT
E-Cubed Media
Ernst & Young
Fraser Institute
Fraser Milgrain Casgrai
Great Canadian Casino
Graphically Speaking
High Road Communicatio
Poets Cove Resort and Spa (????)
Radiant Communicatio
Rocky Mountain Railtour
SFU
UBS
Vancouver Board of Trade
Yahoo! and Google are on the list too. I wonder what happens to your search engine rankings when you default on those guys. ;-)
For any of you left high and dry without a CMS since the demise of Marqui, give us a call.
The Fuel Team
www.thefuelteam.com
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