Founding (2007–2013)[edit]

Scribd began as a site to host and share documents. [12] While at Harvard, Trip Adler was inspired
to start Scribd after learning about the lengthy process required to publish academic papers.
[14]
 His father, a doctor at Stanford, was told it would take 18 months to have his medical research
published.[14] Adler wanted to create a simple way to publish and share written content online.
[15]
 He co-founded Scribd with Jared Friedman and attended the inaugural class of Y
Combinator in the summer of 2006.[16] There, Scribd received its initial $120,000 in seed funding
and then launched in a San Francisco apartment in March 2007. [6]
Scribd was called "the YouTube for documents", allowing anyone to self-publish on the site using
its document reader.[14] The document reader turns PDFs, Word documents,
and PowerPoints into Web documents that can be shared on any website that allows embeds.
[17]
 In its first year, Scribd grew rapidly to 23.5 million visitors as of November 2008. [18] It also
ranked as one of the top 20 social media sites according to Comscore. [18]
In June 2009, Scribd launched the Scribd Store, enabling writers to easily upload and sell digital
copies of their work online.[19] That same month, the site partnered with Simon & Schuster to sell
e-books on Scribd.[20] The deal made digital editions of 5,000 titles available for purchase on
Scribd, including books from bestselling authors like Stephen King, Dan Brown, and Mary
Higgins Clark.[21]
In October 2009, Scribd launched its branded reader for media companies including The New
York Times, Los