Cool. Congrats! So, once again, you're missing Startup School. :/ I saw a few problems with auctomatic. Number one, I was never sure how this would work out

Cool. Congrats! So, once again, you're missing Startup School. :/ I saw a few problems with auctomatic. Number one, I was never sure how this would work out considering eBay PowerSellers, your target market, would almost entirely be in their 40's, with auctomatic's team below drinking age. When I was 22, I enjoyed having customers 30-50 years old relying on me for my eBay software, but at 24, after Startup School, I realized that it was okay to be around, as well as to design, new software for people my age--and maybe you were beginning to feel that same way, as well. (Just like the Beatles could have probably tried to make more money by targeting older adults of their parents' age since an average teenager doesn't have nearly as much money as a 40 year old; yet, the Beatles became famous by creating music that was great for their own peers at the time.) The other problem I found with eBay is that a startup based around another company's technology and users, at it's best, is tied down to another company, and eBay is not the most technically advanced, consistent, or stable parent to deal with (in my experience) even if they were one of the first web apps to come out with an API. My third worry was that I believed that it would be better to do something for free to attract tons of buyers, and then convert them to sellers, than vice versa, because sellers will go to where the buyers are, from the tons of research I did, and not vice versa. That's why I concentrated on software for buyers this entire time. The fourth is that such a startup targeting older adults would need to have older employees targeting forums where such sellers hang out, and I'm not sure any of that was being done other than visiting the eBay's annual conference. I believed you were focusing on creating killer technology and getting funding, but not the boring stuff like talking to older customers who couldn't care less about technology or social networking, nor did I believe you were asking them to tell their friends, etc, in places where older adults might be. This move seems to make tons of sense. You're decoupling yourself from a being dependent on another company, you're focusing on the buyer aspect, and between the many different "properties" you may be developing, there are plenty of youthful opportunities like boxing.com and call.com to keep one excited and relative to others our age (just for the psychological benefits.) Oh, and you get paid as part of the process, and stay with the same great team, too.