Okay fine, so we haven’t won an Academy Award or any award for that matter. But you have to understand that being able to launch this site to the public and finally let the world see what we’ve been pouring ourselves into for the past several months of our lives is a pretty big deal to us. And a lot of people deserve a ton of thanks and shout outs for supporting us and getting us to this momentous occasion. Think of this as the author’s note at the end of completing and publishing a novel. Without the following people, we wouldn’t be here. Plus, this might be the closest we get to giving a speech, so here goes:
Dave: Wow, where do I begin? Well, first off I’d like to thank God for giving me this unique opportunity to create something so fun and cool with such a great group of guys. Thanks to my mom and sister for being so supportive and encouraging throughout my life and career. To my roommates past and present, Dick and Eric for taking a risk on me when I had nothing but a business plan and a dream, and putting their money where my mouth is and Jeff for letting the company take over our apartment. To JimO for taking a chance on two of his goofball colleagues. To Jeremy at Yelp, Josh at RobotCoop, and Seth at Meebo for their candid advice and inspiration for this rookie founder. To Tom, Al and Tom for your sage guidance and helpful introductions, I would recommend these guys to any startup looking for an investment. To my friend Dan, who was like the fifth member of our team, for being our dream user and voluntary QA Director. To my team, well, without whom none of this would have been possible. Cliff and Michael, thanks for putting up with my barking and badgering, I think I surpassed my quota on the bug list. Papa, who would have thunk that nine months after eating Vietnamese noodles at a hole in the wall brainstorming ideas that we’d be here today? I couldn’t have asked for a better cubemate at Yahoo! seven years ago. And finally, special thanks to my dad who I wish was here to witness all this. He believed I could do great things and in turn made me believe in myself. I’ll always be your biggest fan ba.
Papa: I’d like to thank my wife for letting me quit my job which resulted in a cessation of my salary and our once high standard of living. I’d like to thank my children Koa and Kalea for putting up with eating beans and playing with cornhusk dolls. I’d like to thank my neighbors for their unsecured wireless networks, your bandwidth was essential to our success*. Thanks to my parents and my sister who didn’t freak out when I told them what I was doing (dad was actually quite supportive). Thank you to our investors, including my former Yahoo! compatriot Jim O’Connor. Thank you lawyers for not collecting on that fat bill we owe you just yet. Finally thanks to the Fanpop team. Elizabeth for interning with us despite the lack of perks. Mike for joining up as our first employee and feeding us. Cliff for taking the big leap of faith early on and getting things rolling. And last, but not least, Dave Lu, for sticking with this despite the numerous misteps and mistarts. Sure quitting our jobs was scary, but we knew 2006 would be special! And finally, thank you subterranean-asian-foodcourt-with-one-mexican-booth-next-to-belden-
lane, without your fine foods and fantastic decor (love the pinesol scented tables, dingy lighting and free CNN broadcasts) none of this would have ever come to fruitiion.
* only kidding, all bandwidth used was legally obtained
Michael: Like Papa, I need to thank my wife. Even before I knew I was joining these guys, she supported me in quitting my job and working on projects that I found interesting and invigorating. Through these last six months, she’s been the financial support that enabled me to help build Fanpop. I’d also like to thank my parents for supporting me in this endeavor and for they continuous prays. Thanks to the loyal fans of Cooking For Engineers for being patient with me during the last couple months where I haven’t had time to post any new articles. I especially want to thank Harold for spending so much time on the site during the private beta and providing unimaginable amounts of excellent feedback. Also, Trevor for the early user experience and providing me with early words of encouragement. Of course, a big thank you to Dave, Papa, and Cliff for selling my on the idea and then deciding to hire me on. You guys rock! Finally, I’d like to thank God for bringing me into this group of cool and wonderful people.
Cliff: A million thank you’s to my girlfriend, my awesome family and my extended family for being so supportive through the late nights and long weekends. To my priceless friends for helping us get there and for putting up with the stacks of servers everywhere. To the people who put their faith in us and backed us before we even had something going. To Jeff and his ‘mate for giving us a home. To all of our rat-loving, photography taking, backcountry hiking, tree snowboarding, jedi-and-hobbit-like beta members. To our hard-working lawyers and their staff. (Is this billable?) To open source software. To the great crew at Good. To the Jetta and biodiesel for getting us through the big ass commute. A huge thanks to the incredible FP team: Dave, Dave, Michael and Elizabeth, and thanks to lady luck for hooking all of us up together.
Y’all are totally my heros. This place? Kicks all kinds of butt.