“Honeymoon’s over. It’s time to get married.”

– Carol Burnett to Walter Matthau in “Pete ‘n’ Tilly”

RALEIGH, N.C. – Carol Burnett’s unforgettable wake up call to Walter Matthau in 1972’s “Pete ‘n’ Tilly” ought to be on the wall of every startup’s CEO.

From the glitzy early days of hype and dram to raising money and getting reams of publicity, these businesses evolve to reality of married life.

Time to really get down to business as the honeymoon days end.

Time to monetize.

Succeed or face divorce – from funders and customers.

Justin Miller knows he faces such a challenge in 2016 as he and his team seek to turn WedPics into a viable, profitable business.

“Capital is for further growing the company in 2016, as this is a critical year for WedPics – proving not only massive adoption and retention but showing that we can move the needle in a much more substantial way from a revenue point of view,” Miller told The Skinny when discussing the closing of the company’s latest venture capital round.

“[Our] focus still remains heavy on the user acquisition and retention front but this year is a key year for us to prove we can monetize in a larger way. We’re going to be rolling out our initial ‘tests’ here within the next week or so.”

WedPics drew an impressive $7.3 million in what was targeted at being $5 million. Plus, the company raised another $1 million-plus in debt.

So with the coffers refreshed, WedPics enters this new year hiring more people while looking to make its mark in terms of driving revenue with new apps and more.

Millions have flocked to WedPics to turn weddings into big social events on the web. But will WedPics convince newly weds to invest cash in memorializing their ceremonies?

Investors certainly continue to show interest in what Miller and company are doing.

“The round was just a top-up to the $5M B round we did last year. Wwe targeted an additional $2M but wound up raising about $2.3 million,” Miller explained.

“We opened the round back up ahead of our 2016 season to really fuel our efforts with WedPics, focusing heavily on both the user acquisition strategies as well as some new monetization efforts.

“In addition a percentage of this capital will be used for proving out the market viability of PhotoApp.”

WedPics unveiled PhotoApp last year. Now comes the crucial test, as Miller noted: Proving market viability.

Investors have demonstrated with their cash they believe Miller and WedPics will do just that.

“Justinis a top tier entrepreneur building an amazing product in a sector that has largely ignored mobile. His numbers speak for themselves,” Alexander Pessala of Washington, D.C.-based Middleland Capital and a WedPics investor, told WTW when asked why they put money into WedPics. “We immediately realized that not only was he onto something big with the business, but that he was also a pleasure to work with.”

Another investor used a key word in describing his thinking for backing WedPics:

Traction

“We’re excited about WedPics’ impressive traction and continued development of their business through their new PhotoApp,” Sean Steigerwald, co-Founder of Malartu Funds, told WTW.

Durham’s IDEA Fund Partners not only has invested in WedPics but worked with Malartu to bring more backers to the company.

The traction is indicated by WedPic’s growing numbers of users. And as Miller noted, the range of backers is growing.

“Most of the investors were already current investors who simply ‘/topped-up’their investment, but we did bring on a few new investors such as Mosley Ventures (VC in Atlanta), Ben Boyer (from Tanaya Capital in SF), [Triangle angel] David Gardner, and a $95K syndicate created via Malartu Funds,” Miller said.

To meet the 2016 viability challenge, WedPics continues to hire.

“Growth is driven by scale,” Miller said. “As we continue to increase our market share in the wedding space we’re increasing the team accordingly.

“We are currently hiring across several facets of the company: Marketing, Data Scientists, iOS Devs, and Android Devs.”

The company’s headcount has grown to 27, with six people working remotely.

WedPics remains located at HQ Raleigh, Miller noting: “We’ve continued to expand our footprint in HQ Raleigh and are content here – at least for now.”