Themebot for Sale!?
Not too long ago, Themebot received an acquisition inquiry from an online advertising firm. This came as a surprise since Themebot is somewhat beta and still in active development phase. A friend suggested I hire a lawyer to handle this. After mulling it over, I decided it would be better to get a feel for the situation before dropping coin on a lawyer.
A couple days later I called the firm. The phone conversation with the business development representative left me with a sense that they were not prepared to offer what I feel is fair valuation for the site. As much as I need the money, I decided it would be better not to sell Themebot and to continue building out the site. Themebot has not even come close to reaching full-potential at this early stage in the game.
Receiving this inquiry brought up some concerns. The whole point of Themebot is to provide a valuable service that supports members and the open source community. Currently, Themebot is one of the best resources for finding web templates and is only getting better. Traffic is growing steadily and as more people are finding the site, the number of quality templates is increasing.
Eventually, features will be added that enable members to earn money directly through the site. Isn't it every web developers dream to be making money online, gainfully self-employed and working on creative projects? Plus, there will always be profit sharing with the open source community through donations. Without the huge array of open source tools available, many of us wouldn't be building such feature-rich and functional web sites. This is the spirit in which Themebot was created, and if an acquisition were to take place, these ideals would have to remain intact as part of the business model.
Although the inquiry did not materialize into a financial windfall, it does validate the potential for Themebot and is definitely an inspiration to make this the best template site available.