How These Co-Founders Sold Their Startup for $30 Million in 4 Months
And they hadn’t even launched yet
Fate brought them together. Dom Hofmann, Rus Yusupov, and Colin Kroll met while working for the travel site, Jetsetter (which was later acquired by TripAdvisor). During their time at Jetsetter, the trio conceived of the idea for an app. They were sure it would go viral.
Their idea became Vine, which they founded in June of 2012. Fast-forward just four months to October and they accepted a $30 million acquisition offer from Twitter. They hadn’t even launched their app yet.
By the end of 2015, Vine had surpassed 200 million monthly active users. But despite its unprecedented growth and virality, the app was discontinued by parent company, Twitter, in October 2016.
What happened?
From The Beginning
Rus Yusupov, a designer-turned-founder, was born in the Soviet Union and moved with his family to New York after the Revolutions of 1989. His artistic abilities began blossoming early in life and his parents enrolled him in LaGuardia High School of Music and Art — a high school that specializes in teaching visual and performing arts.
He later graduated with a BFA from the School of Visual Arts and, in 2008, founded Big…
