Saturday, April 04, 2009

Selling Sportingo

It is Saturday night and I wanted to share with all of you the latest news about the sale of our sites, Sportingo, Caughtoffside and Getsport.
In the past few months it become clear that with the current business climate our best chance to succeed would be by joining forces with another company. We are very fortunate to have met the folks at Tixtaq who are building a fantastic business and share a lot of the same values that we at Sportingo do. Combining the audience and platform from our sites with the innovative ticketing information and services at Tixtaq creates a much stronger company.
As much as I am pleased with the outcome of our transaction I am writing this post with mixed feelings. We started Sportingo three years ago. Build a fantastic team and created something new which touched the lives of millions of sport fans around the world and gave hundreds of you the chance to express your passion about sports. As CEO and co-founder I do feel that three years was not enough to reach all of my goals and that I wish I had the opportunity to realize the full dream that drives the process of starting a new venture.

I can’t help but think about what must be going on at Twitter these days. They have build a phenomenal business and it is rumors that after three years are being offered a fantastic amount of money to sell the company. No matter how much money is on the line, I am sure the founders will have some regret if they sell. A part of them would have wished to see the journey through, in a way they would never be able to as part of Google or Microsoft. I don’t know any entrepreneur that started his/ her business simply to make money. Don’t get me wrong, the financial return is very important to all of us, but is never the reason you start your venture. Ventures are created because you just need to make it happen, check what if? Spend sleepless nights trying to figure out how the world should work, or get carried away by someone’s vision or technology.

This urge to figure things out and come up with a new product or service is to my view at the core of any type of new beginnings. For me the sale of Sportingo will close another cycle in my life. I was fortunate to meet and work with extraordinary people during my journey and wanted to thank all of you for your hard work. Oleg, Hadassa, Phil, Donna, Mark A, Mark R, Gabriela, Yaniv, Yoram, Udi, Derek, Mick, Chris, Tal R, Tal B, Nick, Dean, Matt, Dave, Michelle, Avi, Ori, Aya, Ilana, Itzik, Natalie, Uzi, Shai, Boaz and the rest of the people who helped along the way, thank you for your contribution over the past three years.

I will most likely be closing down my blog, if you want to stay in touch or have an interesting opportunity for me to consider you can follow me on Twitter zrozov .