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
