Today has been an especially good day for a few friends of mine who just recently (I do not know if it happened today or a few days ago, but I just read it today so lets go with today) turned their dreams into a reality. What I am talking about are the guys at Goowy Media who just sold their company to AOL. There are excellent write ups on Mashable as well as TechCrunch with all of the details, so I will spare you the rehash of those posts here.

I had the pleasure of meeting Alex and Jeremey (CEO and CTO respectively) this past April at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco. The circumstances of us meeting each other is a little hazy (there was a decent amount of beers involved), but someone introduced me to Jeremy and we hit it off. He asked what I did, I told him and I asked him what he did and he told me, we exchanged the usual pleasantries when you meet someone for the first time. After hearing what he did, I was intrigued so we began talking more about his company, which at the time was a startup (and I guess technically still is until the sale goes through and then they will be part of the AOL family, of which I am no longer) and one thing led to another and I told him about a startup I was trying to get off the ground. I had actually entered into a startup challenge a few weeks before, and made it to the semi-finalists (did not go on to the finals, but I was completely fine with it, it was not the right time).

Anyways, Jeremy was very intrigued by the idea and introduced me to Alex and he too really dug the idea. These guys were just 2 ordinary guys that had a dream to develop a company that filled a void they saw in the marketplace, and followed their dreams and made it a reality. I too felt like I had developed an idea that filled a void in the marketplace and I was inspired by their success and wanted to do the same thing. They too felt like I was on to something and took time out of their busy trip to sit down with me and review what I was doing and provide suggestions, pointers, and share their experiences and forewarn me of potential pitfalls. They did not have to do that, really they did not know me other than a chance meeting in a bar, but the fact that they did what they did for me speaks volumes of their character, both personally and professionally. They had nothing to gain by meeting with me and helping me along, but they believed in paying it forward (as do I) and they were just doing their part in helping someone else turn their dreams into reality.

So to Alex and Jeremy I say thank you for all of your help, but more importantly congratulations to you and the entire Goowy Media team in fighting the good fight, never giving up and turning your dreams into reality!