This afternoon I was interviewed by Michael Arrington at TechCrunch Disrupt NYC and we had an entertaining exchange about the future of CrunchBase. This was reported on by Jon Shieber who concluded that CrunchBase was open for bids. I want to let everyone know that CrunchBase is not for sale.
It’s no surprise that some envision a CrunchBase outside of AOL. Our vision for The Business Graph is ambitious and fills a void that all of us have around answering everyday business questions. Some would say that a crowd sourced business intelligence platform could one day even become more valuable than TechCrunch. In other words, we have a great vision, traction, and team – the perfect ingredients for a venture backed startup.
When I first spoke to AOL about joining the CrunchBase team a little more than a year ago, I asked the same questions that Michael Arrington asked today. Working with Tim Armstrong and the AOL team, however, I came to appreciate their commitment to running CrunchBase as startup inside of AOL. Looking back over the last year, AOL has remained true to their commitment. CrunchBase hired its own team, set its own roadmap, and fostered its own relationships with partners around the world.
We are a startup with a fantastic future that happens to reside inside AOL.
-Matt Kaufman
