Ramblings of General Geekery

1Password partnerns with venture capital Accel

This is making me somewhat suspicious and nervous about 1Password’s future:

I’m incredibly proud to announce that we’ve partnered with Accel to help 1Password continue the amazing growth and success we’ve seen over the past 14 years. Accel will be investing USD$200 million for a minority stake in 1Password. Along with the investment – their largest initial investment in their 35-year history – Accel brings the experience and expertise we need to grow further and faster.

First, VC money is never good news in my books. It always comes with oversight, agendas, and other types of strings. The silver lining is that it’s a minority stake in this case, so supposedly the 1Password people might still be in charge.

Second, you have to wonder why 1Password would need help growing. It seems like it’s doing all right. Better than alright, actually. It’s definitely my preferred password manager1, and is routinely in the top 2 best password managers for most people. Why does it need growth? Why can’t it just be a, you know, sustainable business that makes enough money to pay every employee fairly and stay afloat?2


  1. Despite their rather badly handled transition to subscription-based cloud hosting a couple years ago. ↩︎

  2. Because capitalism, yeah, I know. ↩︎