Kickball Labs
Creator of sketchfu, a social drawing site.
| Date | Investors | Amount | Round |
|---|---|---|---|
| investor | €0.0 | round | |
$2.0m | Series A | ||
| Total Funding | 000k | ||
Kickball Labs operated Sketchfu.com, a social drawing website founded in 2007 by Matt Rubens and Andrew Chen. Based in Palo Alto, California, the platform targeted artists and doodlers, providing a space for creative expression and community interaction.
The core of Sketchfu was a simple, web-based drawing application that allowed users to create digital artwork using a selection of brushes and colors. A notable feature was the playback function, which recorded the entire drawing process and allowed others to watch the artwork being created stroke-by-stroke, at various speeds. This feature served as both entertainment and an educational tool, showing others the artist's technique. Users could create and share their work without registering, but a free account was necessary to save drawings, comment on others' work, or give 'cheers'—the platform's version of a 'like'.
The platform successfully cultivated a community, encouraging users to join groups and browse art sorted by categories like 'funniest', 'cutest', and 'most impressive'. At its peak, Sketchfu hosted nearly 5 million drawings and had over 200,000 registered users, boasting significant user engagement with average visits lasting over 13 minutes. The business operated as a social media platform for digital art, with its primary asset being its active user base. The website was shut down on January 30, 2014.
Keywords: Sketchfu, Kickball Labs, online drawing tool, social drawing website, digital art community, Matt Rubens, Andrew Chen, art sharing platform, browser-based drawing, animation playback, user-generated art, creative community, digital doodling, online art, web-based art application