While you wouldn’t think a search engine for electronic parts, with the name “Octopart” nonetheless, could have a warm-and-fuzzy story, it does when told by Michael Arrington for TechCrunch. It goes like this: Two physics Ph.D students drop out of school to pursue the worthy goal of making parts easier to find and buy.
After founding Octopart in 2007, Andres Morey and Samuel Wurzel brought another physics Ph.D dropout, Harish Agarwal, onto the team and raised $300,000 from angel investors in 2008. Later that year, another funding round fell through and the three were left working for free, plus coming up with the $700 a month it took to keep their servers running. Here’s where the warm-and-fuzzy comes in. Their hard work and perseverance has paid off. Today, Octopart is signing with important distributors such as Mouser Electronics, getting half a million unique visitors a month, and bringing revenue in the door. It’s a happy ending. The dropouts who aren’t quitters are back on salary.
Read more at TechCrunch.
