It's been roughly two and a half years since we started Waybury—and it's been a ride. We somehow made the seemingly impossible “make-products-while-consulting” juggle work. We built (and launched) two products—one via Kickstarter and the other completely bootstrapped. Lastly, at the risk of sounding new-agey, we learned a lot about ourselves. We learned that first and foremost, we're makers; more specifically, toolmakers. Even more specifically, toolmakers for designers. Coming to that conclusion made it a no-brainer to join InVision.
I know many of "these posts" can read like the written manifestation of checking a task off from a PR checklist, so I'm going to try to avoid the typical "we're excited, they're excited, everyone is excited" clichés. Of course we’re excited. Instead of pointing out the obvious, I’d rather explain why we're doing this. First off, many of you reading this are probably saying, "Waywho?". This is a fair question and completely relevant to "why". Waybury was never the biggest or loudest company on the block, but in our ever-humble opinion we always punched above our weight. In our first product Iconic, we made something genuinely unique and previously unseen in the typically benign icon space. In our second product Relay, we created a platform for design communication with more integrations than team members—all while funding it through consulting. We have strong, considered opinions about design and the tools we use for it. We didn’t set up Waybury with the goal of being acquired. We enjoyed our independence and took full advantage of it. However, at the end of the day, we were a three person company (only "ballooning" to four people a year ago) and the limitations in speed and reach were clear. In addition, by understanding that we were first-and-foremost makers it became obvious that we should place ourselves where we could focus exclusively on making.
It didn’t take long for us to conclude that joining InVision made a lot of sense. InVision is at a goldilocks size—not too small where you're changing your own toner but not too big where there are whole departments, procedures and documents for it. InVision's size, customer base and reach gives us an opportunity to have a level of influence with designers that we realistically could not achieve on our own. It also allows us to focus on the making process and leave the aspects of business such as outreach and operations to other qualified people. That all made sense rationally. It made even more sense emotionally after we had a chance to meet the team and get to know who we'd be working with. We've learned just how vital people and their collective chemistry is to a team’s success. Everyone “knows” that, but experiencing it is another thing altogether. This, above all, makes us dare I say, excited.
So it’s moving time and we're actively transitioning to be a part of the InVision team. Some of you are likely curious what this means for Iconic and Relay. I'd be lying if I gave you any definitive answer. What I can say is that we're in the process of figuring that out right now. I do know that our thinking and our experience will not be siloed within the products that we've previously made—which is something the entire team is obviously enthusiastic about.
We're so proud of what we did at Waybury—through all the ups and downs its been one of the most formative experiences in our professional lives. Yes, we’ll miss our office, lunch at Cancun’s, The Jar, and a slew of other things that are meaningless to you but remain as fond memories for us. However, for everything we miss looking back, we will be given something new and even more meaningful going forward. We’ve made just about every mistake possible so through the simple process of deduction elimination we’re closing in on making the perfect design tool. We're going to take all those experiences along with all our skills to help make InVision the tool that makes you do your job better, faster.
— Chris, Dave, P.J. and Ryan