YourTechOnline acquired by SupportSoft

Last night I got an email from Steve Wandler, CEO of YourTechOnline.  He told me the deal had closed and I can now finally blog about it.  I had the inside info because I’m an advisor to the company.  I instantly emailed Rob over at Techvibes to fill him in on the scoop, since I couldn’t get to blogging until tonight.

I was introduced to Steve through a mutual friend, Dale Fuller, former CEO of Borland, McAfee, WhoWhere, among other things.  I know how hard Steve has worked for this, and I’m very excited that he has found a home for his baby at SupportSoft.  Funny story about that… I met SupportSoft’s founder, Mark Pincus back in 1999 when my brother’s wife used to work for him there.  Mark and I now keep in touch via facebook from time to time, but I’m pretty sure neither of us had anything to do with the acquisition.  :-)

Great job Steve, and thanks for proving once again that BC is growing hotbed of tech startups.

Auctomatic acquired by Live Current Media

I’m happy to report that the Auctomatic team has been acquired by Live Current Media (TechCrunch entry here). You might also know Live Current Media by their former name, Communicate.com.

I helped with this in a very small way by introducing Jonathan Ehrlich to the Auctomatic guys. Jonathan was hired by Communicate as President, and moved out to Vancouver from Toronto. We met back then through an introduction by Toronto-based mischief maker David Crow. Jonathan and Communicate have been excellent Vancouver tech community participants, supporting DemoCampVancouver and other local tech events.

I knew of the Auctomatic guys because they were a Y Combinator funded startup, and were hanging out with Avi and the team at DabbleDB. It was great to talk with this international team (England, Ireland, and elsewhere) and find them hiding in our backyard.

I call this success for Vancouver, and I’m looking forward to cool things from this team. Congrats to everyone evolved, I look forward to continue working with you. I expect great things!