The OS X version of Texpad was started as a our first project in the summer of 2011. Having finished writing our PhDs in theoretical physics at King's College London, we as Mac enthusiasts had become all too aware of the lack of a polished, LaTeX editor. Texpad was borne partly out of these frustrations and partly due to our other passion: staying out of a job that involved a boss we had to answer to.
It has been a mixed blessing; uncertainty has often accompanied the freedom of being you own boss. Most importantly, we've survived and have done so despite good (and free) competition and despite the poor working conditions of app developers working on an Apple-controlled platform. And here we are now, rather proud of having made the OS X and iOS versions of Texpad, as well as Texpad Connect to weave it all together as a researcher's workspace. It's software that we love using ourselves and wish we had at our disposal when we were writing our theses.
The name Valletta Ventures was inspired by the capital of Malta where we spent a burning summer launching Texpad as expats.