Bellevue's Smartsheet has raised $1.25 million in B-round funding from Madrona Venture Group and Smartshee'ts chairman, Brent Frei, who formerly co-founded Onyx Software and worked at Microsoft.

Smartsheet will use the money for product development and outreach efforts in selected markets. Its online work management tools now have more than 65,000 users in 30 countries.

The new money brings the company's total funding to $5.56 million since it began in 2006.

In a blog post, Frei explained that he's decided the best investment nowadays is to "invest in yourself."

"The simple best answer I've found is: Invest in Yourself,'' he wrote. "I've followed my own investment advice and put my money where I know the team, product and plan are stable and growing. Smartsheet.com. Our modest $1.25M B round should take us to profitability in 2010 and beyond. Plus, there's no better time to double down on yourself than when the tailwinds are out of everyone's sail and you have strong rowers. Market inertia won't be driving your competitors around you, they'll have to put their backs to the oars if they expect to survive."

Too bad he's not running the show at the Seattle P-I.