Interview with Envato Founders Collis and Cyan
Aug 20th in Interviews by Collis Ta'eed
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.
Hello! I'm a web and graphic designer who loves blogging, startups and everything about the web. You can find me on Twitter and I blog at The Netsetter
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!
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+ 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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User Comments
( ADD YOURS )Dave August 20th
Cant get the Video to play ? May just be bogged down with people viewing… Will try later!
( )sam August 20th
The best website to learn
( )Abang Lie August 20th
thank you for the efforts
( )kiziel August 20th
Wow, nice intro
( )Ulrik August 20th
Very sympathetic people:) Good job and good luck going forward. Looking forward to that MetaTuts site you were talking about :p
( )Vasili August 20th
Lovely interview!
You guys should do some more but with the staff. It’b be nice to meet some of the other staff working there.
( )dronix August 20th
nice interview. Happy Birthday
( )Geoffrey Krachum August 20th
(awesome) intro, good interview , it’s nice to see the people who started this community. keep it up !
( )Lex Beelen August 20th
I like the interview. Keep up the good work
.
Funny shot: http://www.lexperts.nl/funny/envato.png
( )Benjamin Reid August 20th
That was a bit unfair on Collis. Funny though.
( )Collis Ta'eed August 20th
hehe that’s of course my natural facial expression when I’m reading or resting
( )lawrence77 August 20th
HahahahahaahaHahahahahaahaHahahahahaahaHahahahahaahaHahahahahaahaHahahahahaaha……….!
( )lawrence77 August 20th
nice expression though…
And throughout the interview Cyan smiles and laugh… it looks cool cyan nice smile…
Collis is a lucky man!
kiziel August 21st
He just sent russian mafia to you for what you’ve said.
Philo August 20th
Great interview, nice to finaly see the people that are behind all the great Envato websites!! Hoping to see more great quality websites in the future
( )Muhammad Adnan August 20th
Happy to see the Guys Behind the Scenes.
Great work.
( )paadt August 20th
You seem like nice good people, I feel your warmth for the company and that is great
Some nice pointers in there also! I’ve been playing around with the idea of starting up “something” and I never go through with it because of the uncertainties it brings to the table.
I’m leaning more and more to just go and start something up, small that is and just see where it leads me!
Thanks for this and congratulations with the 3 years of Envato!
( )Tylor August 20th
Wow! Really great interview. You guys were really great together. I liked watching you both answer the questions. Lots of really great information! I loved it!
( )Martyn Web August 20th
Nice interview its good to see behind the scenes sometimes, you guys seem nice and really passionate about the business.
congrats on the 3rd b’day.
( )Shuuun August 20th
This girl is hot, thats all
DD
Happy birthday from Germany! Looking forward to alle the upcoming it tuts
( )solwyvern August 20th
You guys are a great inspiration.
There’s no telling how much I’ve learned from the Envato network and the community it has created.
3 years more? Why stop there? Keep going for as long as time will allow. :]
( )Alex Stomp August 20th
On behalf of everyone, I’d like to thank you two for your fantastic gift to the world-wide-web-community!
( )Connor Crosby August 20th
WOW, really nice envato intro. Love it! Can you do a tutorial in AE on how to do that?
( )Enatom August 20th
More Videos
( )Enatom August 20th
@Collis, Whos the sucker that sold you the site off of sitepoint ?
( )Jose August 20th
Thought Collis what mute at first.
( )Meshach August 20th
Very nice interview, thanks!
( )kat neville August 20th
Great interview! I first heard Cyan speak in a freelance switch podcast and my first thought was: what a great name for a graphic designer! haha!
My second thought was: I love that she’s travelling and working at the same time. I love webdesign also, but have the adventure bug, and in 3 weeks will begin my freelance/travel life with my boyfriend! Thanks for being such a great rolemodel, and I look forward to hearing more from you guys.
( )Evan Jones August 20th
You guys are humbling and awesome.
( )IgnacioRV August 20th
Very interesting interview, your work is inspiring guys cause you show us that making a startup isn’t as impossible as a lot of us think if you have the initiative.
I’ve learned a lot from your sites and I hope you will be here for much longer!
Congrats!!!
( )Benjamin Reid August 20th
My favourite quote “Hitting the refresh button going come on money!”.
You guys seem awesome as individuals and as a couple. I highly regard Envato as the place to look for quality on the web, not just tutorials but the company as a whole, the design ethos etc.. All the best to you guys!
( )Evan Jones August 20th
Just got to the part about Baltimore Web Designers!! Woot!!
( )Arnold August 20th
Envato is awesome..
( )Keep it up..
Nice interview, I really like it
interesting and some few humor in it.Great.
thanks for this.
kevinsturf August 20th
that was a fantastic interview guys. a job well done on these past years and I hope it continues to be successful as it is today.
( )Baltimore August 20th
B-More in the HOUSE!!!
( )Dustin August 20th
Excellent interview, your both very inspiring.
I am really impressed with your goals for education. It would be a great branch out to help others stay up-to-date with current technologies where some educational institutions lack (or for during those boring ‘have to’ classes which only seem to have little importance)
Great job with these sites, and really great advice.
( )Gene August 20th
remembered when the site is still eden.cc
hmm.. good times..
( )Hugo August 21st
This is my favourite site ever! This site is my life!! Thank you so much Cyan and Collis for bringing us these amazing sites!
( )Hugo August 21st
Oh, and I was also kind of wondering, are these sites made with Wordpress? I’m not really a Wordpress wizz but I like the idea of making a blog, etc.
( )David Moreen August 21st
This stuff is great, glad to hear from the founders of the company. One thing that I would love to know is where Collis gets his ideas from for when he designs his sites in Photoshop. What does he do that is so special that gives just about every website that he make the head turning appearance? Plus you mind must go blank every now and again. There are billions of websites out there not to mention thousands of amazing web designers, how can you keep making unique sites that still look good.
( )Lance Knadle August 21st
I’m glad you guys did the video interview so we can listen and see you! You’ve come a long way. Congratulations and Happy Birthday. KEEP GOING NEVER STOP!
( )Sam Logan August 22nd
Great video guys, here’s to another great three years!
( )superdit August 23rd
You guys are inspiring
( )Adrian Fallas August 24th
This video is so inspiring. I have to say that almost some tears got into my eyes. This sites and what Evanto y going thru is just a price for the effort and everything these people have been doing on their work. And overall, what I think that the key to success is , doing what you love, when you do what you enjoy, the success simply comes around. I’m so happy for the both of you guys and simply you are an example to follow, for all of us. I’ve been think for almost 3 years to start a web site freelancing and to start a web site business, this just make me keep going and fight for my dreams. Congrats to all of you, and all the community which support Envanto. You don’t really know who much your story make me feel alive and that there’s a bunch of thing waiting out there. Wish you all plenty much more success to come. My best regards from Central America, Costa Rica
( )Ariyo August 26th
You guys are awesome. It was so great to finally see the people behind the scene! Keep up the good work.
( )From a Baltimore Photoshoper!!