Brian Goffman

Brian Goffman spent the past two years at Madrona Venture Group helping entrepreneurs build new Internet businesses. Now, the 41-year-old venture capitalist is striking out on his own, albeit with Madrona's financial support.

Goffman has raised $2.75 million for a new Seattle online marketing company called Optify, a stealthy startup that was conceived in Madrona's offices a few months ago.

Earlier this week, I reported that Goffman (and Geoff Entress) were no longer employed by Madrona, but were still working from the firm's offices.

Goffman was a little reluctant to share details about Optify, but he said the general idea is to provide search engine marketing software to medium-sized businesses.

"Our theory is that search marketing ... is very difficult for anyone except for experts in the field," said Goffman. "And what we are going to do with our software is make this a much simpler process for marketers and make it much more of a self-service type of product."

It plans to target car dealers, medical device companies and other businesses where customers do large amounts of research before making a purchase.

That's similar to AdReady in online display advertising, a Seattle startup that Goffman knows very well since he was an early investor and board member. (He's no longer on the board but continues as an adviser.)

A number of companies already provide search engine optimization services. But Goffman said Optify is different because it is trying to use software to transform what has historically been a consulting business.

 "In my experience, when you see an area that's got a lot of consulting dollars being spent, you'll often find a big opportunity for software to simplify the process," he said.

Goffman said Seattle's SEOmoz isn't really a competitor, pointing instead to marketing automation startups such as Marketo, MarketBright and Hubspot. San Mateo, Calif-based Marketo launched last March and pulled in an $8 million funding round two months ago, while Cambridge, Mass.-based Hubspot attracted $12 million last Spring. MarketBright also recently raised capital.

Optify employs five people, including Goffman and co-founder Erez Barak. Barak previously spent eight years at H-P in the Mercury Interactive group.

In addition to Madrona, several angel investors --including former Madrona partner Geoff Entress and BuddyTV founders Andy Liu  and David Niu --participated in the deal.  Optify is already working with a few customers, but the full product won't go live until next year, Goffman said.

Going from VC to entrepreneur has not been too tough for Goffman, who says he is an "entrepreneur at heart."  Still, he admits there are some key differences. For one, he now is focused on a very specific niche, whereas before he dabbled in a number of different projects. He also said the "sense of urgency is extreme in the entrepreneurial role."

And what about raising capital? Given his connections to Madrona, wasn't that an easy pitch?

"The good news, I know the guys really well," said Goffman, adding that he did talk to other venture firms. "Although we are good friends and we respect each other, it wasn't a slam dunk by any means."