After fielding over a dozen offers for Sortfolio, we finally came to an agreement this weekend with a couple of entrepreneurs who will be the new owners of Sortfolio.
This is big news for our Sortfolio customers. Back in May we said we’d either be selling Sortfolio for $480,000 or retiring the site on July 1. And now it’s all good news: Sortfolio has been sold to a great team.
This means Sortfolio lives on!. Sortfolio’s unique visual search will remain the best way for web designers to find clients and clients to find web designers.
We’ll be transitioning the site to the new owners over the next couple of months. We’ll post more details once the transition is over. There will be no interruption of service for current customers, and we’ve turned signup back on so new customers can list their web design firms on Sortfolio.
We’re especially happy that Sortfolio’s found a new home because over the last week or so we’ve been getting emails from people saying how important Sortfolio has been to their business. Emails like:
...All of my leads and livelihood flow through Sortfolio. It’s how I pay for my health insurance, groceries, mortgage, etc…
and
...I can honestly say that Sortfolio changed our lives. Sortfolio brought in the best leads ever and we were able to crawl out from the financial hole we landed in. It actually does that even now, on daily basis.
So here’s to a second lease on life, Sortfolio!
Christopher Hawkins
on 02 Jul 12Did you get the full $480K?
DHH
on 02 Jul 12Christopher, yes, Sortfolio was not for sale for less.
Anonymous Coward
on 02 Jul 12@37signals
Does that mean current customers won’t have to re-enter in their credit card info as part of the transfer of service?
gitano
on 02 Jul 12i hope the new owner will continue along the way you traced
JF
on 02 Jul 12Does that mean current customers won’t have to re-enter in their credit card info as part of the transfer of service?
That’s correct. Customers will not have to re-enter credit cards or do anything. This is pain free for customers.
Michael
on 02 Jul 12Great news! Can’t wait to meet the new owners.
Christopher Hawkins
on 02 Jul 12Julian S
on 02 Jul 12The site was listed for sale on Flippa. Did you sell it through that channel? does it work?
JF
on 02 Jul 12Julian: We sold it through a direct contact, not on Flippa. We got a few direct inquiries on Flippa, but nothing got far enough to get close to an actual sale.
George Gecewicz
on 02 Jul 12Will any of the design change, or is this not determined yet? The language on the signup form is some of my favorite copywriting, I hope it doesn’t get replaced!
JF
on 02 Jul 12George: That’s up to the new owner once the site changes hands.
Don Schenck
on 03 Jul 12You sold a company that was making money??
Don’t you know you’re supposed to be BURNING money and then sell for 100X your valuation??
Sheesh. Don’t you guys know ANYTHING about Bubble 2.0??
Dylan Bland
on 03 Jul 12Congratulations on the sale and best of luck to the new owners! Sounds like a win/win.
Sortfolio
on 03 Jul 12Hi everyone. I’m part of the team that bought Sortfolio. We are super excited and will be doing proper introductions once we get through the next few weeks of transitions. Thanks to the 37signals crew. They were nothing but pro. For everyone wondering what the direction of the site will be, I can tell you that we’ll be preserving the best of what Sortfolio is and working hard to make it an even better asset for designers. Stay tuned!
Ramesh Nair
on 03 Jul 12I remember mailing Jason to block the Sortfolio Twitter id when the site went live. Hope that too will be transferred as part of the deal! ;)
catwell
on 03 Jul 12@Sortfolio: Regarding the design, you should at least fix the “infinite scrolling + footer” problem…
farico
on 03 Jul 12If you want to see Sortfolio footer, you have to make a screenshot or scroll everytime new designs appear.
Wilman
on 03 Jul 12Kudos! Great job, i When i read this the first time I wasnt sure you were going to get the money you aked for so congrats and let us hope this website keeps on being alive for a long time!
Anonymous Coward
on 03 Jul 12@Everyone
Does anyone else find it strange that the new owners are not named in this post. Nor do they reveal who they are in the comments.
Nick
on 03 Jul 12I do find that a bit strange. I don’t see the value without @37signals name behind this. 37signals is the brand not Haystack… I mean Sortfolio…
But hey good luck to the new owners… who ever they are!!
Anon
on 03 Jul 12Congrats to the new owner!
cbmeeks
on 04 Jul 12This just in….new owners are Yahoo.
lol
Jean-Francois Monfette
on 04 Jul 12Whoever bought this made a very good deal with a lot of upside potential. I read JF’s Inc column on July 1st and a lot of ideas came to my mind about what could be done with the site and all the upside potential it has to move in other verticals. I then realized that it was the deadline… I read all the comments and many made very good points about the link to 37signals that would soon be cut, but I bet that the majority of visits come through search. I would have loved to see the analytics report ! Good luck to the new owners !
The Unbounded Spirit
on 04 Jul 12Congrats!! hehe
Robinsh
on 05 Jul 12Wow Jason a $480K deal, and yeah would you like to say – what was the yearly turnover of sortfolio ?
Congratulation because you got the new owners for sortfolio and that’s also in the same price tag you were asking for closing the offer.
Chris
on 05 Jul 12Jason did a pretty good job explaining Sortfolio’s revenue and business model in the original “For Sale” post: http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2899-sortfolio-deserves-a-better-home-make-us-an-offer
Really?
on 06 Jul 12Sortfolio was someone’s only sales channel and changed lives?Give me a break….
Anonymous
on 06 Jul 12Only a non-techie would pay $480k up front for sortfolio, most techies would create a similar site for far less money.
Keith
on 07 Jul 12I think it was a good move to sell the site. Focus is essential. The more things you try to do, the less gets done. A good lesson.
This discussion is closed.