Warnock and Geschke started Adobe in Warnock's garage. They named the company after Adobe Creek in Los Altos, California, which ran behind Warnock's house. Warnock's wife, Marva, a graphic designer, designed the company's first logo.

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Warnock and Geschke were previously employed at Xerox. They left Xerox to start their own business after Xerox refused to commercialize a technology they developed. The technology, called PostScript, is still the graphics industry standard for printers.

Adobe's founding principles include:

• Innovation is at the core
• Employees are the greatest asset
• Customers, communities, and stakeholders are central to success

As of 2022, Adobe has more than 26,000 employees worldwide.

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The Adobe Mafia

Adobe's alumni network has built some amazing companies. In this article we cover the top 25 companies that have raised a total of $2.7 billion according to Crunchbase data. The Adobe Mafia seems to be a lot into acquiring and getting acquired, keep reading to know more!

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PS: Are you an Adobe employee/alum interested in getting your community together to invest in the community (and earn carry/other benefits along the way)? Or are you a member of another community that you think would make for an amazing startup investment community? 😉

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Learn more about us and sign up for the waitlist here.

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Most Money Raised: Accela

Accela's early vision was to help venture-backed businesses by giving founders the freedom to focus on growing their core business. Accela's name comes from the word "accelerate".

Between 2014 and 2015, Accela acquired ten companies, including: PublicStuff, GeoTMS, IQM2, Envista, Kinsail, Government Outreach, Decade Software, Civic Insight, Springbrook Software, SoftRight.

The platform is used by state and local government agencies in the United States and in other countries. More than 275 million citizens worldwide benefit from Accela's government software solutions.

Founder: Gary Kovacs

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Company to keep an eye on: Runway Health

Runway Health is a telehealth brand founded by Joshua Rome, that connects travelers with US-based physicians. The physicians can prescribe FDA-approved medications for common travel ailments, such as: Traveler's diarrhea, Motion sickness, Altitude sickness, Malaria prevention, Sleep aids.

Runway Health was founded in 2021.

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A list of all the amazing companies covered:

• Accela
• Typeface
• Luma Health
• HotelTonight
• Replicant
• WhatsApp
• GuideSpark
• Drishti
• Normalyze
• Daylight
• Joveo
• Anchor
• Comparably
• Sigmoid
• Jolata
• Immersa
• Cloverpop
• Tasteful
• Storehouse
• ClientSuccess
• Outlearn
• Eyegroove
• Aviator
• Runway Health
• Wallaby Financial

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Accela

Founder: Gary Kovacs
Adobe Role: Vice President & General Manager, WW mobile
Capital Raised: $215.6M
Investors: Primary Venture Partners
Stage: Series E

Accela provides market-leading solutions that help governments to modernize and build thriving communities.

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Typeface

Founder: Abhay Parasnis
Adobe Role: EVP, Chief Technology Officer(CTO) & Chief Product Officer (CPO)
Capital Raised: $165M
Investors: Menlo Ventures
Stage: Series B

Typeface offers a generative AI application that provides streamlined and personalized content creation for enterprises.

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Luma Health

Founder: Aditya Bansod
Adobe Role: Principal Product Manager
Capital Raised: $159.1M
Investors: Alumni Ventures
Stage: Series C

Luma Health offers patient access, revenue cycle management, and patient relationship management.

HotelTonight

Founder: Christopher Bailey
Adobe Role: Senior Computer Scientist
Capital Raised: $126.9M
Investors: GGV Capital
Stage: Series E

HotelTonight is a mobile hotel booking application that allows users to find and reserve same-day hotel rooms from their smartphones.

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Replicant

Founder: Gadi Shamia
Adobe Role: Acting COO, EchoSign
Capital Raised: $113M
Investors: Norwest Venture Partners
Stage: Series B

Replicant is a contact center automation software that helps companies automate their most common customer service requests.

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WhatsApp

Founder: Brian Acton
Adobe Role: QA Engineer
Capital Raised: $60.3M
Acquired by: Meta

WhatsApp is a proprietary, cross-platform, free instant messaging subscription service for smartphones. Facebook acquired WhatsApp in February 2014 for approximately $19.3 billion.

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GuideSpark

Founder: Joe Larocque, Keith Kitani
Adobe Role: Product Management, Sr. Director
Capital Raised: $62.2M
Investors: NEA
Stage: Series C

GuideSpark is the leader in change communications guiding customers to business success by changing the hearts and minds of employees.

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Drishti

Founder: Krishnendu (Krish) Chaudhury
Adobe Role: Senior Computer Scientist
Capital Raised: $37.2M
Investors: Andreessen Horowitz
Stage: Series B

Drishti is a provider of AI-powered video analytics technology that gives visibility and insights for manual assembly line improvement.

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Normalyze

Founder: Amer Deeba
Adobe Role: Software Engineer, Acrobat
Capital Raised: $26.6M
Investors: Lightspeed Venture Partners
Stage: Series A

Normalyze is a data-first cloud security platform.

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Daylight

Founder: Paul Barnes-Hoggett
Adobe Role: Principal Architect, Technology + Experience Innovation
Capital Raised: $20M
Investors: Gaingels
Stage: Series A

Daylight is a digital banking platform in the USA built for LGBT+ people, by LGBT+ people.

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Joveo

Founder: Rahul Chaki , Jahangir Mohammed
Adobe Role: Member of Technical Staff
Capital Raised: $17.5M
Investors: Peak XV Partners
Stage: Series B

The Global Leader in Programmatic Job Advertising

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Anchor

Founder: Nir Zicherman, Michael Mignano
Adobe Role: Lead Server Engineer, Head of Product, Aviary
Capital Raised: $14.4M
Investors: Accel
Stage: Series A

Anchor allows anyone to record or upload high-quality audio, host unlimited episodes, and distribute everywhere with just one click.

Comparably

Founder: George Ishii
Adobe Role: Software Engineer
Capital Raised: $13.8M
Investors: Upfront Ventures
Stage: Series A

Comparably, a platform that provides culture & compensation data for public and private companies.

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Sigmoid

Founder: Mayur Rustagi
Adobe Role: Developer
Capital Raised: $12M
Investors:
Stage: Series B

Sigmoid is a Data Solutions company offering best-in-class services in Data Engineering and Data Science

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Jolata

Founder: John Loiacono
Adobe Role: SVP Digital Media
Capital Raised: $12.8M
Investors: ATA Ventures
Stage: Series B

Jolata is a company which delivers high-precision network performance analytics services.

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Immersa

Founder: Aseem Chandra
Adobe Role: SVP, Strategic Marketing, Experience Cloud
Capital Raised: $10M
Investors: Mayfield Fund
Stage: Series A

Immersa offers a data automation platform that connects product usage data to sales, service, and marketing to increase SaaS revenue.

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Cloverpop

Founder: Erik Larson
Adobe Role: Senior Director, Enterprise Product & Strategy
Capital Raised: $9.1M
Investors: True Ventures
Stage: Series A

Cloverpop is a decision Intelligence platform based on a system of record for business decisions.

Tasteful

Founder: Eswar Priyadarshan
Adobe Role: Computer Scientist
Capital Raised: $9M
Investors: CRV
Stage: Series A

The Tasteful app helps you Discover Delicious Healthy Food Together

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Storehouse

Founder: Mark Kawano
Adobe Role: Product Designer
Capital Raised: $8.5M
Acquired by: Block (Previously Square)

Storehouse lets you tell stories with your photos and videos.

ClientSuccess

Founder: Dave Blake
Adobe Role: Vice President, Global Customer Success
Capital Raised: $5.8M
Investors: Album VC
Stage: Seed

ClientSuccess is a customer success platform that empowers SaaS companies to maximize revenue and minimize churn.

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Outlearn

Founder: Jeff Whatcott
Adobe Role: VP of Marketing & Business Development
Capital Raised: $4M
Acquired by: Qwiklabs

Outlearn was a cloud publishing platform and curated content catalog for professional developer learning, acquired by qwikLABS in 2016.

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Eyegroove

Founder: Scott Snibbe
Adobe Role: Computer Scientist
Capital Raised: $3.6M
Acquired by: Meta

Eyegroove is a social network for mobile video creativity that enables video editing, music presentation, and video effects.

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Aviator

Founder: Ankit Jain
Adobe Role: Senior Member Technical Staff
Capital Raised: $2.3M
Investors: Y Combinator
‍Stage: Seed Round

Aviator is a software provider that provides assistance towards workflows and PR's.

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Runway Health

Founder: Joshua Rome
Adobe Role: Business Development Manager
Capital Raised: $1.5M
Investors: Pareto Holdings
Stage: Seed

Runway health is all about affordable, convenient travel medication.

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Wallaby Financial

Founder: Todd Zino
Adobe Role: Lead Computer Scientist
Capital Raised: $1.1M
Acquired by: Bankrate

Wallaby Financial helps consumers get the most out of their credit cards by optimizing usage based on individual preferences.

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