
Today, the company I work for, Auctomatic.com (or formally, Entity, inc. — a classic startup name!) announced that it has been bought by
Live Current Media. This has been in the works for a while and it has been hard not to talk about it and spill the beans.
Coverage of the deal:
Update 3/27:
Live Current was formerly called
Communicate.com, and their main offices are in
Vancouver, BC. So, this acquisition means that I'll be moving to Canada for the foreseeable future. I spent some time up there last fall (coincidentally; we went to spend some time with
DabbleDB, who invented our
web framework), and loved the city. It's going to be great to get to know it better. Plus, Squamish and Whistler are only a couple hours away, so the playground is good too.

The last 8 months have been a bit of a blur -- this has been a wild ride. Thinking back to June 2007, it seems so long ago. My
last project was working great as an application, but had not succeeded as a business. I knew that I wanted to work for a startup, and that I wanted to join up with a group that had a bit more business acumen than I did, and a clear idea of the direction they wanted to go, and why.
I ended up joining Auctomatic, and I'm glad I did. It's been a privilege working with
Harjeet,
Kulveer,
Patrick and
Brian. Harj and Kulveer are two of the best young entrepreneurs out there, and Patrick is one of the brightest programmers I've ever met. I've learned a ton from them — from programming languages and techniques, to negotiation tactics, to SOMA's best deliverable dinners. Of course, it's never quite a smooth ride with a tiny startup, and (since the founders are Irish and British) I've also seen more of the US immigration system than most Americans probably do in a lifetime (it's a mess!). But, overall it's been a great experience. I'm extremely proud of the work we've done and the value we've created in a short period of time. And, I'm very grateful to Harj, Kul and Patrick for inviting me to join them. They have provided great leadership and a steady hand.
Also, big thanks to Paul, Jessica, Trevor and Robert at
Y Combinator. If YC hadn't funded my previous project, Harj, Kul and I might never have met. Thanks also to
Paul M, who did some perfectly subtle matchmaking last summer when I was trying to decide what to do next.
Up in Vancouver two weeks ago, I met most of the Live Current folks (the current live currents?). We're joining a really strong team there, and we're really just getting started. We'll have the resources to do things we could only dream about as a tiny startup... this next phase is gonna be great.