I was wrong about Vinny Lingham

It seems to be my repentance week. And repent I shall.In 2007 I wrote a blog post about Vinny Lingham abondoning South Africa in a tough time, taking his money and running. I was shot down, defended and received 40 comments in total on that post which turned in to a very up-and-down debate.I was immature, I didn't understand the market I was in and I jumped to some unfair conclusions about Vinny and Synthasite. I stand corrected and gladly so.Vinny needed to move to where he moved for relatively obvious reasons. Yet he maintained offices in Cape Town and fed those offices through with some of the brightest talent he could find. He did not abandon SA but did what he needed to do to make his business work. And work it did.I received this in my inbox this morning:

Dear Nic,Today, I'm proud to announce that Reinet Fund has just invested $20 million into SynthaSite, securing our future and enabling us to continue to build our business model and product offering. This is a massive vote of confidence in SynthaSite, and we owe it to each and every one of you. Our future is bright and, with your support, we will continue to make a difference in the world!When we began building SynthaSite, we sought to create a company whose product would change the lives of millions of people by giving them a voice online. We wanted to provide the opportunity for anyone anywhere to build a website that would achieve their unique goals, from starting a small business to showcasing their achievements.In 2007, we raised $5 million in venture capital and moved our headquarters to San Francisco, keeping a good portion of our technical team in Cape Town, South Africa. Since then, SynthaSite has grown from just a handful of people to more than 40 individuals in both offices, supporting over one million users. Our support forum is one of the most active on GetSatisfaction's network, and our recent "Best of SynthaSite" contest attracted more than 1,000 entrants. This level of success could only be achieved thanks to the dedication of both our user community and our staff.I'm unbelievably excited about the future of SynthaSite and look forward to building on our success in helping you and many others reach their potential online. These past 15 months have just been the beginning...Thank you for all your support.Vinny LinghamFounder and CEO

To Vinny and his team I cannot congratulate you enough. You deserve the success (and the money) and I hope sincerely that the investment you've received in this downturn proves well worth it in the long run.

Synthasite Mentioned On TechCrunch

Reading my TechCrunch feed this morning I noticed that Synthasite received another mention on the blog.While referring to a Facebook plugin called Sampa which provides Facebook users with the ability to customise their webpages within the Facebook platfrom, Synthasite was mentioned. Sampa is apparently more focused on content while the TechCrunch blog says that Synthasite is more of a designed based creation platform.Very interesting. Mr Lingham and his startup are making waves. I think it is fantastic for South African startups and Vinny deserves all the praise he can get.

Synthasite Beta Falls At The First Hurdle

I can't register for Synthasite. It gives me an error, and not a particular descriptive error at that:Maybe I just can't enter an email address and password or something but surely this should be the easiest part of the process that doesn't incur problems?Vinny, any advice?UPDATE:I managed to register on my 6th attempt at signing in my details. Now on to beta testing.