Archive for March, 2008

I’d read about this story last week, but didn’t want to blog about it until i’d investigated further..

Honestly, i’d never heard of auctomatic, so i’ve had to educate myself in it over the past few days. I do vaguely remember hearing about Patrick Collison a few years back, winning the Irish young scientist of the year award, having created a programming language from scratch at 15. At the time i remember thinking WTF, this guy is only 15!

Anyway, auctomatic sold for over $5m last week. It was co founded by two Irish teenage brothers – the Collison brothers. The two brothers aren’t sole owners though, so that sum will be diluted, however Patrick is on record as saying he’s now a millionaire so i’m not sure what way it was all split.

Anyway these two lads went over to the US to work on Auctomatic which is a pretty big move… it’s not like you or i could just drop all and go overnight, so there was some big and risky decisions made there i’m sure.

I was very interested in their start up process and reason for moving… apparently it was easier to get funding in the US, so they didn’t even bother trying to get funding over here in Ireland – tells you a lot

They initially started up with just $15k investment – not bad, we’ve managed to scoop together over $10k together for BeerChief from our own back pockets

They were also backed by former Google employees and Oxford University students & mixed with their own undoubted talent, it’s not exactly a case of rags to riches, but none the less credit where credit is due

At 19 and 17, i’m sure we’ll be hearing more about these guys in the future as they now have the cash to plough in to other work if they want to!

Not that i need it, but stories like this only help serve as great motivation for me when attacking BeerChief. Ironically, i’ve signed on the digital dotted line just today to get BeerChief built, more on that over the next few days. But these guys were not your average teens, let’s get that clear. Patrick was a genius at 15 and his brother John is every bit as clued in apparently so i don’t think it’s a case of if you can do it so can I.

I’ve never met these guys but i can guarantee you it wasn’t a case of striking it lucky or putting in a few hours here and there… they would be hugely self motivated and work like horses i’m sure. But they make it all look and sound so fun and easy and that’s always a sign of geniuses

Their story helps show that ideas & workrate, when mixed together online, can explode in to multi million dollar websites. NEVER before has it been so easy to build a business and promote it.

At the end of the day auctomatic is simply one spin-off site to ebay, there are many others – auctionads and auctionsniper spring to mind. And this is just in one area online – marketplace/buying/selling.

It just highlights how big and ‘untapped’ the internet really is. There are loads of spin off sites and new ‘super sites’ that are just waiting to be created. For a young person like myself right now (or even an old person!), this is an absolute gold mine and all it takes is a few ideas, a few contacts, a bit of cash and a bit of elbow grease to get things rolling.

The likes of the Collison brothers could have played it safe and stayed in school/college and stayed at home in Ireland. That would have been a reasonable decision, a sensible one.

But i tip my hat at them for having the balls and confidence to head over to the states, take the risks and just do it. Still teenagers, these guys are now set up for life and can really enjoy themselves and pick their own career path. THAT is the life

Time to upgrade folks..

WordPress 2.5 has at long last been released.

I’ll be updating this blog now and will report on it later…

Update; things are much snazzier with 2.5, fair play to the lads at wordpress, my only plugin issue was with ‘popularity contest’ which delivers a lovely fatal error with 2.5, so i’ll see if i can find a solution…

Starting Monday, i’ll be on the home straight at College.

I have all of April to look forward to at college, then i get off in May for a week, then i have a few exams. It’s important i don’t get sidetracked too much from now until those exams with BeerChief. Whilst college isn’t that important to me at the minute, i may need it to fall back on in the future, plus i never like failing at anything anyway, not my style

The year has gone incredibly fast, it seems just yesterday i was blogging about my first day at college. Anyway, i just have to pass all my exams and it’s mission complete. I passed the first semester with flying colours, so i have no repeats hanging over my head in the summer & if i pass all my modules first time around in May, i’ll cruise in to second year in September.

It may seem strange to some, but i only really start working in the summer I should have my new office in place by then, and if i have my way i won’t come out of it until September This summer, BeerChief WILL be launched and by the time that comes around, we’ll have spent OVER 5 FIGURES (US dollars) on it.

So we haven’t exactly done things on the cheap or tried to cut costs anywhere, if we put the sort of work in to it which we’re talking about, i could easily be talking about a 6 figure valuation this time next year

I’m seriously considering setting up a limited company NOW.

The only thing really holding me back is the fact i’ll lose my college grant money for the next two years, which will be about €6k (€3k per year). Reason being, the company would require 2 members (directors) and company directors cannot receive social or grant benefits.

So that sucks, but on the flip side, the cost of building BeerChief would be -20% should we set up a company, plus i’d get my office for example at -20% also… decisions, decisions…

We may have to schedule a meeting with an accountant or something just to brief us on what we’d be getting in to. But setting up a business with no proven profits seems wrong. A risk – undoubtedly. The biggets risk of my life so far

It would, however put us in a much stronger position to promote BeerChief and generate advertising deals. Limited liability is also nice peace of mind, not that i’d lose anything of value anyway as i don’t have anything of value

Tomorrow, i’ll be staying in the Marriott Hotel, Ashbourne.

It’s a fairly new hotel and has great feedback so i decided to just book it in a spur of the moment type thing. €99 including breakfast for the two of us.

I plan on heading up to Dublin Airport also. I thought about going to Newgrange, as believe it or not, i’ve never been, but i think i might leave that ’til the summer when i know i’ll get a dry day!

The reason i’m so unproductive this week is because my girlfriend is off on a weeks holidays. It’s bitter-sweet, mostly bitter

Having said that, i’ve managed to further talks on BeerChief (we’ve now agreed a final price and are beginning work) and and come up with a few site designs for one of my new sites, plus come up with a few new ideas for more sites.

Anyway, for my non-Irish readers, here’s a map of where my home is, where my college is, where Dublin is and where the hotel i’ll be staying in is For my Irish readers, sorry for insulting your intelligence