Bebo
The social network that beat MySpace in Britain, sold to AOL for $850 million at the top, and got bought back by its own founders for $1 million five years later. America barely noticed Bebo; for a few years the UK and Ireland barely used anything else.
Michael and Xochi Birch — a husband-and-wife team — launched Bebo from their San Francisco home in January 2005. The name meant nothing at first; "Blog Early, Blog Often" was a backronym invented afterward to answer the question. The site barely registered in America but exploded across the UK and Ireland, overtaking MySpace to become the most widely used social network in the United Kingdom, with at least 10.7 million unique UK users.
In March 2008, AOL bought Bebo for $850 million — the Birches' 70% stake earned them $595 million. The timing turned out to be perfect for exactly one side of the deal. Two years later, on June 16, 2010, AOL sold the site to Criterion Capital Partners for an undisclosed sum, and on July 1, 2013, the Birches bought their own creation back for $1 million. Relaunch attempts have come and gone since; the arc — kitchen-table startup to $850 million to pocket change in eight years — remains one of the web's cleanest cautionary tales.
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