In 2004 when Ben and I were cooking ideas for a new company, we founded MerchantCircle. We believed that, even though at the time it was not in vogue, local advertising and the Yellow Pages industries were ripe for disruption by the Internet. It was not such a popular idea. Our best of friends told us, "You guys are naive and crazy....but, possibly, if it all works, brilliant!" With the initial support of a few key supporters, we rolled up our sleeves and went to work.
After nearly seven years of helping millions of local merchants, MerchantCircle is now joining forces with Reply! -- MerchantCircle has been acquired by Reply! for $60 million. Here's the MerchantCircle blog post announcing the deal and here's what TechCrunch has to say.
This is a great deal. The organizations bring much complementary value to the table. By joining forces, the new combined company provides even greater value to the local communities that they serve. Congratulations to all -- Reply!, MerchantCircle, the investors (Scale Venture Partners, Rustic Canyon Partners, Steamboat Ventures, IAC), and the individuals that have worked hard over the years. Many have been previously called out in the aforementioned blog post, but there are many others that have made this happen, including Doug Kilponen, Darren Waddell, Wes Mitchell, and Ray Landgraf.
As for me, I am grateful and thankful for having worked with these people. While Jason and I have recently moved on to start a new company, Charity Blossom, we look forward to Reply!'s continued success with the help of Ben and MerchantCircle.
As for Charity Blossom, we are just getting started and out to be a similar disruptive force in the charitable giving industry, helping charities and nonprofits. Stay tuned!
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