And another small site gets bought quietly for millions...

I opened up my email this morning and glanced through an email from the President of Conde Nast's online division. The first line shocked me, and hit close to home:

"...effective yesterday, and as I have briefly mentioned, we have another new website in our portfolio, nutritiondata.com."

Whoa. I remember finding NutritionData.com in 2004, a year after it was launched, and have been using it ever since (just this morning, in fact!). I remember being amazed that its two founders would be so idealistic as to create such a great resource with no ads or attempts at bringing in revenue. Now, it's all quite clear.

In 1999, a teenager created a program which allowed us to play mp3s on our computers: Winamp. At 20 years old, he received $86 million dollars when AOL bought his company.

Is history repeating itself? How many other companies have been bought out for undisclosed millions, barely making headlines? It seems the secret is to build a great tool for people to use, for free, and then sit back and enjoy the show. At worst, you'll have a successful portolio piece. At best, you'll be a multi-millionaire.

Read more at: biz.yahoo.com/prnews...