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!
Jason Fried wrote this on Jul 02 2012 There are 29 comments.
Christopher Hawkins 02 Jul 12
Did you get the full $480K?
DHH 02 Jul 12
Christopher, yes, Sortfolio was not for sale for less.
Anonymous Coward 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 02 Jul 12
i hope the new owner will continue along the way you traced
JF 02 Jul 12
Does 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 02 Jul 12
Great news! Can’t wait to meet the new owners.
Christopher Hawkins 02 Jul 12
Julian S 02 Jul 12
The site was listed for sale on Flippa. Did you sell it through that channel? does it work?
JF 02 Jul 12
Julian: 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 02 Jul 12
Will 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 02 Jul 12
George: That’s up to the new owner once the site changes hands.
Don Schenck 03 Jul 12
You 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 03 Jul 12
Congratulations on the sale and best of luck to the new owners! Sounds like a win/win.
Sortfolio 03 Jul 12
Hi 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 03 Jul 12
I 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 03 Jul 12
@Sortfolio: Regarding the design, you should at least fix the “infinite scrolling + footer” problem…
farico 03 Jul 12
If you want to see Sortfolio footer, you have to make a screenshot or scroll everytime new designs appear.
Wilman 03 Jul 12
Kudos! 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 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 03 Jul 12
I 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 03 Jul 12
Congrats to the new owner!
cbmeeks 04 Jul 12
This just in….new owners are Yahoo.
lol
Jean-Francois Monfette 04 Jul 12
Whoever 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 04 Jul 12
Congrats!! hehe
Robinsh 05 Jul 12
Wow 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 05 Jul 12
Jason 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? 06 Jul 12
Sortfolio was someone’s only sales channel and changed lives?Give me a break….
Anonymous 06 Jul 12
Only a non-techie would pay $480k up front for sortfolio, most techies would create a similar site for far less money.
Keith 07 Jul 12
I 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.