Welcome back about.me!

About every four years, our partner, Tony Conrad, shows his Founder chops and inspires us to invest in a company he is starting. In 2005, it was Sphere, a blog content engine that was acquired by AOL. In 2009, Tony and Ryan Freitas, along with their co-founder Tim Young, dazzled us with about.me, a beautifully designed personal identity page that makes it easy for visitors to learn about you and find your content from around the web. Four days after the site launched, about.me was also acquired by AOL—so clearly about.me’s founding team was onto something special.

Today (four years later), I am very pleased to announce that Tony and Ryan, backed by True and a handful of great co-investors, have purchased about.me back from AOL. Tony and the entire about.me team have big plans for the site, most importantly to build it into a lasting, stand-alone company.

I’ve talked about Tony’s merits as a Founder before, but his decision to continue building about.me is truly impressive. With a fantastic job as a partner at True and a great relationship with AOL, Tony could easily have kept himself busy and happy for many years to come. But about.me has always been special to Tony, and his visceral belief for the potential future of the company inspired him to action. Tony has always had a pulse on the major trends in the consumer Internet space, and we truly believe in his confidence in about.me’s potential.

At True, it is all about the people. We say it a lot, but that’s because we mean it. Passionate, creative Founders are why we exist, and we will jump at the chance to work with them again and again. This is third time we’ve invested behind Tony, and it’s truly inspiring to once again be a part of his journey with about.me.

Tony, Ryan and the entire about.me team: Welcome back!