Fleaflicker (solo founder) Acquired by AOL

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/25/aol-acquires-fleaflicker/

by fleaflicker • 18 years ago

97 55 18 years ago

techcrunch.com

immad2• 18 years ago

Are you the founder?

fleaflicker8• 18 years ago

Yes, thanks everyone.

immad2• 18 years ago

congrats. Can you share the acquisition value? :P

axod• 18 years ago

Congrats :) Nice to know that single founders can make it as well.

Any hint about the sale price?

jsjenkins168• 18 years ago

Congratulations. You're an inspiration to all of us.

If you dont mind me asking, did you take on investment money or was the decision to sell solely yours?

fleaflicker8• 18 years ago

Zero outside investment. Zero other employees (I've been doing this full-time for ~3.5 years). I hired an artist for the illustrations. And used a lot of open source projects.

edw5194• 18 years ago

Cool. Do you have a blog? Or perhaps you can share some bootstrapped, single founder stories. There just aren't enough of those here. I would find them especially enlightening.

electric• 18 years ago

How did you finance yourself (since you did it FT for 3.5 y)

coglethorpe• 18 years ago

Congrats. That is so awsome! I love hearing about someone "making it."

I think I remember a post you made on Reddit about not having a co-founder. If I recall you wanted one. Guess it turned out anyway.

I have a deadbeat co-founder. :-( Going solo would be better.

richcollins• 18 years ago

I've heard the live feeds are expensive. How did you pay for them?

ericb3• 18 years ago

Solo Founder? I demand you scuttle the acquisition and stop violating pg's pet theories.

congrats!!!

http://www.paulgraham.com/startupmistakes.html

xlnt2• 18 years ago

pg's theories are consistent with some solo founders succeeding.

ericb3• 18 years ago

You should check out my startup, www.stoprespondingseriouslytojokes.com

hacklite2• 18 years ago

Ironically, he got an invite from YC despite being a single founder -- and then turned them down.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=173759

Apparently they will "take a chance" on you as a solo founder if you have an already-established profitable business you've built up over several years to the point where an M&A event is imminent.

vlad• 18 years ago

I very reluctantly (reluctantly because pg is very kind to have any kind of seed funding program or startup school at all) have to agree with your post. A nicer way of putting it is, "we're not going to go against our #1 rule about not having startups because that would make us look bad, unless rejecting a single founder would make us look even worse." In other words, YCombinator doesn't want to prove themselves wrong except when the case is such that rejecting a clear super-star would make them look even more wrong. But that doesn't mean there aren't good reasons.

I think the idealistic idea that people should move to Silicon Valley, meet other smart people, live near smart VC's, and then start with some funding and multiple founders is excellent advice; however, it doesn't seem fair to reject those 20 year old single founders who already started as single founders, and who are fine having users instead of cofounders, because they feel they're months away from success, don't know anybody who is a worthy programmer and don't have time to look, and don't know any good VC's and don't have time to look. In fact, the whole reason single founders apply to YC is so they could move to Silicon Valley, meet other smart people, live near smart VC's, and more...

However, being a solo founder for a long time could mean the founder may not take YCombinator advice as well as multiple founders might (in which case, neither of whom may have much of a leg up or time invested in the project, and would be willing to do whatever pg says, making pg's job easier.) In general, I believe that having multiple founders makes lives better for the startup, for the users, and for investors.

I'm not sure what, if anything, can be done differently, except to take those hackers who've tried doing a startup for years without the benefit of the Valley, put them together in a room, and try to do new projects together. But if you're going to do that, you might as well take some people who apply as a group and have some experience working with each other already, versus a bunch of people used to doing things on their own and their own way.

And the bigger question would be, why would solo founders want to work on a different project, anyway? And if they were to do the same project they're already working on, where would they get a founder or employee, or would they be willing to?

I guess that's where Startup School comes in--to put a bunch of people interested in starting up together in one room, in Silicon Valley, with VC's presenting, to show them that there are definitely others out there who they could work together with, regardless of their luck finding such people back home, and that Silicon Valley is as nice to live in as it is famed for new technology.

edw5194• 18 years ago

Looks like you just got drafted in the "Reality Hackers League". Congratulations!

You are inspiriation to the rest of us fellow single founders.

wallflower• 18 years ago

Congratulations! Looking forward to your next adventure/venture

abless• 18 years ago

Great job. Doing something for 3.5 years on your own requires a lot of confidence and perseverance. Congratulations!

bigbang• 18 years ago

He definitely deserves it for that alone. Much more inspirational than already-reach-from-paypal youtube guys selling for 1.6B

eposts2• 18 years ago

Congrats! Looking forward to details...

mosburger3• 18 years ago

Many congrats! You are an inspiration to all of us!

So, who is your favorite NFL team? :)

nanijoe• 18 years ago

Duh...he's from Jersey. He has to be a Giants fan

mosburger3• 18 years ago

Yeah, I was kind of afraid that might be the case. :) </lifelong-pats-fan>

fleaflicker8• 18 years ago

Unfortunately, the Jets.

mosburger3• 18 years ago

I'm so sorry. Maybe with your newfound wealth you could buy them? :)

henning• 18 years ago

You should taste wine with Gary Vaynerchuk to celebrate.

wave• 18 years ago

Congratulations.

how does the acquisition process initially start?

mattmaroon2• 18 years ago

Congrats man! Good to see someone in the space cashing out.

citris• 18 years ago

founders bio http://www.fleaflicker.com/images/bu_profile.pdf

rockstar9• 18 years ago

wow solo founder! definitely an inspiration.

Fuca• 18 years ago

Congratulations Dude, I picture you in Cancun with a margarita now, but hope you have the chance to answer: How much of your success do you think is thanks to good SEO?

jrockway• 18 years ago

Wait, but now you have to work for AOL :)

sfalbo• 18 years ago

How did you go about getting the word out about your site? Did you purchase advertising or was it all word of mouth? Congrats!

vikas5678• 18 years ago

Could you tell us some technical details about the project? What did you use to make it? How the website handles the huge increase in traffic during football season? I'd be interested to know about any technical information you would be willing to share.

rob• 18 years ago

What programming language did you use?

Fleaflicker (solo founder) Acquired by AOL

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