Polldaddy acquired by WordPress
Congratulation to Lenny aka David Lenehan and Eoin Gallagher on Polldaddy team – and Toni, Matt and Automattic team.
Polldaddy is the default online poll service for leading blogs, social networks and websites – and the acquisition by WordPress parent – Automattic – makes total sense – and the team dynamics is brilliant.
Only 2 developers [Lenny and Eoin] on polldaddy – which was initially incubated within Infacta.
It was spun out as a seperate entity late in 2007 – with angel investment provided by Infacta and Polldaddy founder, Jonathan Hill.
Polldaddy also recruited Scott Rafer as an advisor in 2007 – and Scott played no small part in assisting the project in getting to its current scale.
The Polldaddy is great validation for Web2Ireland – especially given the level of investment, the operations, and the acquisition result.
Given the recent news on Facebook setting up in Ireland – it perhaps set a new model for the IDA/EI – International operations get setup via acquisition [which is what Israel have done for years].
To add more context in terms of WordPress scale – see this post from Fred Wilson on Facebook vs WordPress – and the Polldaddy numbers will drive this further forward.
Disclosure: I’m a personal friend of Lenny, Jonathan and Scott
Tags: facebook, jonathanhill, polldaddy, scottrafer, web2ireland, wordpress
12 Responses to “Polldaddy acquired by WordPress”
Walter Higgins
October 15th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Well done David and Eoin! Fantastic news. So does this mean the polldaddy team will be moving across the pond?
Conor O'Neill
October 15th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
This is honestly the highlight of the year so far for me. I can’t think of a better pair of companies to get together. More of the same please!
Alan O'Rourke
October 15th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Brilliant news. Well done guys well deserved.
Eoghan McCabe
October 15th, 2008 at 11:24 pm
Brilliant stuff.
Copacetic » Blog Archive » Automattic Acquires PollDaddy!
October 16th, 2008 at 12:46 am
[...] Complete info on Web 2 Ireland. [...]
Allan
October 16th, 2008 at 2:18 am
@Walter Higgins – I would really like to talk to you about Pixenate. Could you please get in touch with me by allan [at] allantyoung [dot] com – I appreciate it.
Damien Mulley » Blog Archive » Fluffy Links - Thursday October 16th 2008
October 16th, 2008 at 5:27 am
[...] PollDaddy was sold to the makers of WordPress. Another win for Ireland. Why not big up the lads over on TechCrunch too? [...]
Damien Mulley
October 16th, 2008 at 9:19 am
Very proud of the Irish Tech scene nowadays. Well done PollDaddy!
Stewart Curry
October 16th, 2008 at 9:45 am
Awesome news guys – congratulations!
Shane Mc Allister
October 16th, 2008 at 10:37 am
Well done lads – richly deserved – great news!
Marcus Mac Innes
October 16th, 2008 at 11:41 am
Congratulations! Really well done.
peter donegan
October 16th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
bulaidh bós lads. Very proud. well done!