Interview with Founders of Envato Collis and Cyan
One of the best things about working here at Envato is that we have an awesome team of people building, managing, writing, reviewing and working on our sites. Yep, things have come a long way since the early days when there was just a few of us trying to do everything!
Recently our awesome Tuts+ interviewer Emil asked if I minded being video interviewed with some questions put forward by the Psdtuts+ readers. Since no-one really wants to see my enormous head on screen for too long a period of time, I asked my lovely wife and partner in crime Cyan if she’d be in on the interview and we thought we’d put up the video to help celebrate 3 years of Envato.
The Interview
So without further ado, if you’ve ever wondered about how Envato started or about who we are, I hope you enjoy this little interview of us!
Don’t like Blip.tv? View the interview onYouTube as individual questions
Here’s to Another 3 Years!
It’s kinda hard to believe it’s been three years already! I still think of us as a startup. I can’t stress enough how thankful we are for all the readers, users, authors, buyers, and staff who have helped us these last three years. Something that’s really come home to me since we started Envato is that you don’t build great companies without lots and lots of great people. From all the positive comments we get, the good natured communities that have grown around our sites, the amazing files that get sold on our marketplaces and the kick-ass tutorials that people contribute to our blogs. I know I have a tendency of overusing the word awesome and I am guilty of typing far too many exclamation marks in my day, but hey what else can I say … it’s pretty awesome!!!
So enjoy the rest of our celebrations. I’ll be back tomorrow with some announcements of upcoming Envato sites that we’ll be releasing in the forthcoming weeks, so stay tuned!
Don’t Forget …
Meanwhiles there’s lots happening during this birthday celebration, so don’t forget to check out:
- $300 of Files for Just $20!
If you haven’t already taken advantage of this amazing deal, head over and grab it while it lasts! You won’t find better value anywhere! Get All The Details - Tuts+ iMac Giveaways & Bonus Tutorials
The iMac giveaways are now well underway on Tuts+ and tomorrow there’ll be a whole stack of free tutorials and source files in the Tuts+ Birthday Bundle. - FreelanceSwitch Birthday Giveaways
There’s Job Board subscriptions, Pixelmator, Billings, ForkLift, Freshbooks Shuttlebus subscriptions and copies of Rockstar Freelancer all up for grabs! Get all the details
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good luck guys .. you deserve it
I enjoyed the interview and look forward to the continued success of envato.
I would love to hear more information on the tools and workflow you use to manage your global team.
After watching the video my wife and I are more determined than ever to get our side project profitable and follow the fine example set by collis and cyan.
Congratulations on your milestone
Nick
Great interviews – you two are an awesome couple, and it’s cool to see you both interacting. Your personalities really carry through on all your projects, which is to everyone’s benefit.
Cyan, I miss hearing you on the podcast – you should return for a guest appearance sometime soon!
Great interview and congrats on celebrating three years! It’s inspiring to know that a successful company like Envato started small like many of our businesses.
Very inspiring.
They give us the courage and hope that you can just as well do this as they can.
I like how they are talking about what a global network it is and how easy it is(except for the timezones) to have people working for you or working for people all over the world. The internet is such an amazing place for things like this. I have taken advantage of this by writing a few tutorials for their Tuts+ network as a way of earning just a little bit more income.
Me being a student in Spain, doing work in Spanish is just a little bit intimidating for me, so earning a little extra cash over the internet is great, and I am grateful for the opportunity. A great TUT idea can get your foot in, and like in startups, a great idea can get you far. For you budding tut writers, if you have an idea, don’t be afraid of sending it in. That’s ensuring that you’ll never have an opportunity. Go for it.
I am interesting in hearing more about the education thing Collis keep referring to. Obviously they are contributing a lot education-wise with their TUTS network, but I wonder how they are going to take it further. I mean, there are definitely a lot of Photoshop tutorials that have helped graphic design students to get A’s on their reports. I wonder why don’t just write their own syllabus to sell to universities….
Finally, I like the Start-It-Small approach. I had an idea once and continued coming back to in my head until one day I just said, “Frack it, I’ll just start doing it and see what happens”. Money is one thing, and that certainly takes a little while longer, but the satisfaction of working on your creation is a whole different thing that people don’t always think about. Again, just go for it.
Again, thanks for a great interview. Eye-opening and inspiring.
Many congrats on reaching the 3 year milestone… keep keeping on
This made my day
I’ts great to see the founders of the sites I visit at least 3 times daily discuss how they got things going. That was worth every minute. I’m amazed that you all started with no investments…see here I’m always told that if you’re starting a business you need investors to give you money and i’ve constantly been putting myself in the mindset that this isn’t true. I feel like I could start something without initial investment which is what i’m trying to do now. It’s great to hear someone else back me up on that statement 
You guys really do have a great community here. You not only found a way to make a living but you found a way to make a living while really helping thousands of people better their lives in some way whether it be just improving their skills or having the knowledge to get in there and make a living doing something they like to do.
The only question I wish I knew the answer to is dealing with the “global” team. You said it is a challenge mainly with the timezones getting people together but how do you handle paychecks and things like that? See i’m still learning the business stuff (i’m 19) but obviously here in the US we are taxed for every little thing and we have to pay out taxes and then as an employee of a company you have to have taxes and medicare and social security taken out. I know laws are different depending on your country so how does that all work? Do you just pay out a regular paycheck and then it is the employees responsibility to report their earnings by tax day? I’m very confused about all that.
Thanks again for the great interview and all the help you’ve been to everyone all these years!
As far as I am aware, all overseas staff members are contractors. Those of us who are employees of Envato are in Australia — and bar one or two, the company’s actual employees work in the Melbourne office (where I am writing this response from right now after the best ever company birthday lunch!).
Haha nice! That makes sense about the contracting, good to know. Thanks for the response!
Agreed!
No mention of http://www.thenetsetter.com/
Definitely something that I would love to see more of.
Congrets.. Envato is 3 years old. Such inspiring start up.
Really inspiring good advice, congrats on the success so far.
Amazing ppl!!!!!
just wanna to say to Collis and Cyan, good luck and always success..
really thanks from me, cz Envato open my mind and eyes about design…