4 ms·

Ancestry.com Acquires 1000memories (YC S10)

64 points by michaelfairley 14y ago

thehodge 14y ago
Congratulations to all
scott_s 14y ago
I'm waiting for Facebook to acquire Ancestry.com and incorporate it into their overall infrastructure. My parents have used Ancestry.com quite a lot, and I realized that what's being built there is a historical, online family network. That is, as you dig into your family's past to find ancestors, you will find records of people that others have made or added to. That, of course, means you have found other people you're related to. Incorporating that into the current largest online social network just seems so obvious to me that I'm surprised it hasn't happened yet.
- joering2 14y ago
  Dear God, no! It would be like MyLife acquired Google (forget about the money) and poisoned Goog search with their crap! Hope there is not enough money is Zucks pocket to pull something like that!
  - endlessvoid94 14y ago
    Think about what it could be, rather than what you fear it might turn into.
    - joelhaus 14y ago
      Ancestry.com is for sale[1] and it is the largest social network in the world (granted, most profiles are inactive). The potential is huge for an acquirer, however, it would be relatively easy for another social network to allow members to create profiles for the deceased. In the future, many of today's social network connections might just function as 1st person genealogical records (provided the companies can sustain). [1] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-22/ancestry-said-to-seek-higher-buyout-bids-from-permira-and-tpg.html http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-22/ancestry-said-to-se...
      - sadga 14y ago
        > most profiles are inactive Beautiful euphemism for "died before the Internet was invented"
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
migfromparis 14y ago
This is good news bravo.
JohnBooty 14y ago
For whatever it's worth, I was reunited with my sister via Ancestry.com! I'm not affiliated with either the Mormon Church or Ancestry.com... in fact, my sister and I both canceled our Ancestry.com account before the trial period was up and we never paid a dime. That was our first sign of proof we were truly siblings.
- johnjones 14y ago
  That sounds like an interesting story. Would you mind sharing a few more details? :)
vyrotek 14y ago
Congrats! So when does the team move to Utah? It's not so bad, we don't bite. I know many developers at Ancestry.com and I hear it's a great place to work. It sounds like you'll be able to continue to operate independently for while but it might be time to brush up on your C# as they are .Net based company. :)
- Bretthuneycutt 14y ago
  We're working from the SF/SOMA office (pretty sweet), and continuing to work on the ShoeBox apps, our website, and related products as an independent team within the company. No .Net for us - Ruby, Javascript, Java, and Objective-C. With our new digs and resources, we're looking for talented engineers (backend, frontend and mobile) and designers. Please email me at brett@1000memories.com if you're interested.
zach 14y ago
I've always wondered what 1000memories business cards look like, because I'd totally love it if they were gravestones: DAN WILLIAMS BELOVED FOUNDER AND CTO Okay, that was random, but congrats on the acquisition. Great fit.
- Bretthuneycutt 14y ago
  Our product has evolved to become the 'new shoebox for your old photos' Our business cards feature photos of us as kids, similar to our team page: http://1000memories.com/team http://1000memories.com/team
rdl 14y ago
Wow, congrats. This seems like a natural fit for 1000memories, and great terms for the customers. I hope it worked out well for the team and investors as well. It would be great if you could post a little more about how the deal went down (in a hn-type blog post, not something aimed at your users) -- how long it took, who approached whom, what parts were good or difficult, etc.
aberman 14y ago
Great team, great product, natural fit. Congrats to Ancestry and 1000Memories.
- Bretthuneycutt 14y ago
  thanks, rich!
droithomme 14y ago
Like all of ancestry's acquisitions, all this content that was gathered by various people will now be placed behind a pay wall that ancestry will assert ownership and control rights over.
- Bretthuneycutt 14y ago
  Not true. Our products will continue to exist for free, and we'll actually be working on improving ACOM's sharing capabilities - i.e., bringing out its great content from behind the pay wall so the wider family network can view and appreciate it.
  - droithomme 14y ago
    > Not true. You have a signed contract that says so? If not, you can't promise that since you don't have that authority. Ancestry has a long history of acquiring sites where people join in community to work together on genealogy, and then destroying those sites, removing them from competition. They are evil. I have no problem with them charging for access to data they have paid to scan, convert and put together, that's a great service to offer. But that's only part of their operations. A big other part is the acquisition of publicly available free genealogy resources where the hard work has been put together for free by the general public, and eliminating those sites so that every imaginable genealogy related search only goes to their pay sites. Their usability also sucks. They are predators that destroy genealogy, and they are thieves. Enjoy your ill gotten wealth my friend, I hope it is worth the eternity in hell that anyone associated with this criminal organization has surely earned for their despicable acts. Or hey why not just down vote inconvenient facts about a dangerous bad corporation that causes great damage into oblivion, relax in the hot tub and drink another marguerita while chuckling.
curiouslurker 14y ago
Congrats! Is it an acquihire?
- Bretthuneycutt 14y ago
  No. ACOM is acquiring our product and users as well as our team, and we'll continue invest in making ShoeBox and our website better and better.

Congratulations to all

I'm waiting for Facebook to acquire Ancestry.com and incorporate it into their overall infrastructure. My parents have used Ancestry.com quite a lot, and I realized that what's being built there is a historical, online family network. That is, as you dig into your family's past to find ancestors, you will find records of people that others have made or added to. That, of course, means you have found other people you're related to. Incorporating that into the current largest online social network just seems so obvious to me that I'm surprised it hasn't happened yet.

joering2 14y ago
Dear God, no! It would be like MyLife acquired Google (forget about the money) and poisoned Goog search with their crap! Hope there is not enough money is Zucks pocket to pull something like that!
- endlessvoid94 14y ago
  Think about what it could be, rather than what you fear it might turn into.
  - joelhaus 14y ago
    Ancestry.com is for sale[1] and it is the largest social network in the world (granted, most profiles are inactive). The potential is huge for an acquirer, however, it would be relatively easy for another social network to allow members to create profiles for the deceased. In the future, many of today's social network connections might just function as 1st person genealogical records (provided the companies can sustain). [1] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-22/ancestry-said-to-seek-higher-buyout-bids-from-permira-and-tpg.html http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-22/ancestry-said-to-se...
    - sadga 14y ago
      > most profiles are inactive Beautiful euphemism for "died before the Internet was invented"
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]

migfromparis 14y ago

This is good news bravo.

JohnBooty 14y ago

For whatever it's worth, I was reunited with my sister via Ancestry.com! I'm not affiliated with either the Mormon Church or Ancestry.com... in fact, my sister and I both canceled our Ancestry.com account before the trial period was up and we never paid a dime. That was our first sign of proof we were truly siblings.

johnjones 14y ago
That sounds like an interesting story. Would you mind sharing a few more details? :)

vyrotek 14y ago

Congrats! So when does the team move to Utah? It's not so bad, we don't bite. I know many developers at Ancestry.com and I hear it's a great place to work. It sounds like you'll be able to continue to operate independently for while but it might be time to brush up on your C# as they are .Net based company. :)

Bretthuneycutt 14y ago
We're working from the SF/SOMA office (pretty sweet), and continuing to work on the ShoeBox apps, our website, and related products as an independent team within the company. No .Net for us - Ruby, Javascript, Java, and Objective-C. With our new digs and resources, we're looking for talented engineers (backend, frontend and mobile) and designers. Please email me at brett@1000memories.com if you're interested.

zach 14y ago

I've always wondered what 1000memories business cards look like, because I'd totally love it if they were gravestones: DAN WILLIAMS BELOVED FOUNDER AND CTO Okay, that was random, but congrats on the acquisition. Great fit.

Bretthuneycutt 14y ago
Our product has evolved to become the 'new shoebox for your old photos' Our business cards feature photos of us as kids, similar to our team page: http://1000memories.com/team http://1000memories.com/team

rdl 14y ago

Wow, congrats. This seems like a natural fit for 1000memories, and great terms for the customers. I hope it worked out well for the team and investors as well. It would be great if you could post a little more about how the deal went down (in a hn-type blog post, not something aimed at your users) -- how long it took, who approached whom, what parts were good or difficult, etc.

aberman 14y ago

Great team, great product, natural fit. Congrats to Ancestry and 1000Memories.

Bretthuneycutt 14y ago
thanks, rich!

droithomme 14y ago

Like all of ancestry's acquisitions, all this content that was gathered by various people will now be placed behind a pay wall that ancestry will assert ownership and control rights over.

Bretthuneycutt 14y ago
Not true. Our products will continue to exist for free, and we'll actually be working on improving ACOM's sharing capabilities - i.e., bringing out its great content from behind the pay wall so the wider family network can view and appreciate it.
- droithomme 14y ago
  > Not true. You have a signed contract that says so? If not, you can't promise that since you don't have that authority. Ancestry has a long history of acquiring sites where people join in community to work together on genealogy, and then destroying those sites, removing them from competition. They are evil. I have no problem with them charging for access to data they have paid to scan, convert and put together, that's a great service to offer. But that's only part of their operations. A big other part is the acquisition of publicly available free genealogy resources where the hard work has been put together for free by the general public, and eliminating those sites so that every imaginable genealogy related search only goes to their pay sites. Their usability also sucks. They are predators that destroy genealogy, and they are thieves. Enjoy your ill gotten wealth my friend, I hope it is worth the eternity in hell that anyone associated with this criminal organization has surely earned for their despicable acts. Or hey why not just down vote inconvenient facts about a dangerous bad corporation that causes great damage into oblivion, relax in the hot tub and drink another marguerita while chuckling.

curiouslurker 14y ago

Congrats! Is it an acquihire?

Bretthuneycutt 14y ago
No. ACOM is acquiring our product and users as well as our team, and we'll continue invest in making ShoeBox and our website better and better.