4 ms·

Keep in mind, a founding team like that is probably worth 10s of millions to a company like AOL (assuming they retain them for several years).

by johnrob 16y ago

ojbyrne 16y ago
Why exactly? Because of their ability to copy another existing site? http://flavors.me http://flavors.me
- aditya 16y ago
  Or, because of their ability to copy another existing site, and having the business savvy and relationships to sell it for a huge sum. Having a successful startup is a lot more than the tech behind it or the product itself, right? I mean, you should know, considering Digg never returned money to its investors. (joke!)
  - benatkin 16y ago
    To expand on your joke, the ability to generate buzz on the twittersphere. http://tweetreach.com/reach?q=aboutme http://tweetreach.com/reach?q=aboutme The last 50 tweets alone (at the time I submitted the form) reached 275,244 people! (Well, could have, if everyone read every tweet in their friends_timeline).
  - abstractbill 16y ago
    Or, because of their ability to ... sell it for a huge sum. Wait, so the founding team is worth a lot because of their ability to sell themselves? Sounds like rather circular reasoning.
    - kareemm 16y ago
      sell themselves and "sell" their product (to 400k users) in exchange for time and attention. as the GP suggests, startups are about a lot more than tech - selling, it turns out, is also valuable.
    - lkozma 16y ago
      Or like self-fulfilling prophecy.. Thanks HN, first a post on multilingual Quines, then this line.. My head spins now.. :)
  - ojbyrne 16y ago
    Actually mentioning digg just reinforces my point - there's relationships and then there's cronyism. Because digg did get money to some investors - presumably the same ones who got invited to the right parties. And invariably we'll have to listen to various people from this company blovating about how smart, and creative, and witty they are.
sachinag 16y ago
Yeah, let's be pretty clear: even if you built about.me, you weren't going to have an exit as good as this one because you weren't already a known quantity to AOL (as Tony Conrad was). I will also say that flavors.me launched before them, but the about.me domain is obviously much better than flavors.
- mmelin 16y ago
  So this is essentially a signing bonus for Tony Conrad to come back to AOL for a few more years? Man, I need to start working on my personal branding.
  - sushrutbidwai 16y ago
    Some part of this signing amount is for domain name. about.me is valuable domain to have IMO.
bigiain 16y ago
That would be "acquiring back a founding team that'd already cashed out to AOL once". I wonder how many times you get to do that. (And I guess this sale is why all my "in the loop" friends al started metioning their about.me page a few weeks back. Yeah, it worked, I became one of the acquired users @ about.me/Iain_Chalmers )

Keep in mind, a founding team like that is probably worth 10s of millions to a company like AOL (assuming they retain them for several years).

by johnrob 16y ago

Keep in mind, a founding team like that is probably worth 10s of millions to a company like AOL (assuming they retain them for several years).

ojbyrne 16y ago

Why exactly? Because of their ability to copy another existing site? http://flavors.me http://flavors.me

aditya 16y ago
Or, because of their ability to copy another existing site, and having the business savvy and relationships to sell it for a huge sum. Having a successful startup is a lot more than the tech behind it or the product itself, right? I mean, you should know, considering Digg never returned money to its investors. (joke!)
- benatkin 16y ago
  To expand on your joke, the ability to generate buzz on the twittersphere. http://tweetreach.com/reach?q=aboutme http://tweetreach.com/reach?q=aboutme The last 50 tweets alone (at the time I submitted the form) reached 275,244 people! (Well, could have, if everyone read every tweet in their friends_timeline).
- abstractbill 16y ago
  Or, because of their ability to ... sell it for a huge sum. Wait, so the founding team is worth a lot because of their ability to sell themselves? Sounds like rather circular reasoning.
  - kareemm 16y ago
    sell themselves and "sell" their product (to 400k users) in exchange for time and attention. as the GP suggests, startups are about a lot more than tech - selling, it turns out, is also valuable.
  - lkozma 16y ago
    Or like self-fulfilling prophecy.. Thanks HN, first a post on multilingual Quines, then this line.. My head spins now.. :)
- ojbyrne 16y ago
  Actually mentioning digg just reinforces my point - there's relationships and then there's cronyism. Because digg did get money to some investors - presumably the same ones who got invited to the right parties. And invariably we'll have to listen to various people from this company blovating about how smart, and creative, and witty they are.

sachinag 16y ago

Yeah, let's be pretty clear: even if you built about.me, you weren't going to have an exit as good as this one because you weren't already a known quantity to AOL (as Tony Conrad was). I will also say that flavors.me launched before them, but the about.me domain is obviously much better than flavors.

mmelin 16y ago
So this is essentially a signing bonus for Tony Conrad to come back to AOL for a few more years? Man, I need to start working on my personal branding.
- sushrutbidwai 16y ago
  Some part of this signing amount is for domain name. about.me is valuable domain to have IMO.

bigiain 16y ago

That would be "acquiring back a founding team that'd already cashed out to AOL once". I wonder how many times you get to do that. (And I guess this sale is why all my "in the loop" friends al started metioning their about.me page a few weeks back. Yeah, it worked, I became one of the acquired users @ about.me/Iain_Chalmers )