Purple Wave Appoints CEO and Announces Record First Quarter
SAN FRANCISCO - Purple Wave, the “click and mortar” auction company, today announced it has appointed Mark S. Strauch as President and CEO. Strauch has served on the company’s board of directors since August 2007 and was formerly the President and CEO of San Francisco-based software company Business Engine. Strauch’s appointment comes at a good time as Purple Wave expands rapidly, having posted 104% sequential quarter growth in its first quarter. For the full year of 2008, the company is on track for over 300% growth.
“We are thrilled to have Mark onboard to drive the amazing expansion in our business,” said founder Aaron McKee. “He has been instrumental as an advisor and board member and now as CEO, his reputation and leadership experience will allow us to achieve our ambitious goal of building the largest local market in the world.”
Purple Wave has successfully pioneered a unique model that blends the scalability and reach of an e-commerce business with a growing number of physical auction locations that provide a full-service liquidation network. Just two weeks ago, the company announced it has recently expanded its operation to cover 6 U.S. states, opening new offices in Reno NV, Dallas TX, Kansas City MO, Wichita KS, Hays KS, and Pueblo CO. Purple Wave goes beyond integrating live and Internet bidding, and is investing heavily in live video, mobile bidding and social networking. By combining these elements into one platform, Purple Wave can maximize the reach of a growing community of value-seeking buyers which is attractive to corporate, government and small business sellers of all kinds.
“I fell in love with this business as an investor and am excited to have the opportunity to join this strong team and lead Purple Wave to the next level,” said Strauch. “Purple Wave is fundamentally redefining the $265 billion auction market by bringing technology, professionalism, and scale to a very traditional industry that in the past has relied heavily on live auction methods. Our unique online-offline model connects end-user buyers with business and government sellers better than existing providers in the market today. Plus, it’s an entertaining way to buy.”
Purple Wave’s emergence is due in no small part to the backing of prominent angel investors Yossi Vardi and Steven Sherman, who have evangelized the company and its innovative model. Mr. Sherman is a successful entrepreneur in his own right, as he has founded and taken public several technology companies. For his part, Mr. Vardi is widely regarded as an Internet visionary, having introduced instant messaging to the world when his company Mirabilis (creators of ICQ) was acquired by AOL in 1998.
“To say that Yossi and Steven are huge assets to this business is an understatement. They are extremely well known in the technology industry. Their involvement has been - and will continue to be - instrumental to our growth. Their vision, their passion, their energy, and their relationships have brought unprecedented opportunities to Purple Wave. When you combine their influence with the respect and trust the company - and Aaron McKee in particular - has built over time, what you have is a powerful recipe for success,” notes Strauch.
About Purple Wave, Inc.
Purple Wave is one of the nation’s leading auction firms, specializing in real estate, equipment, vehicle, personal property and specialty property sales. Purple Wave operates as a sellers agent through unreserved public auctions — a broad range of assets such as high value personal property, industrial equipment, motor vehicles, and real estate. Unlike eBay or other do-it-yourself online marketplaces, Purple Wave specializes in assets that are difficult to transport and require a local turnkey service from listing to marketing to transaction settlement.
Purple Wave’s mission is to build “the largest local market in the world” by combining a central e-commerce destination at http://www.purplewave.com with a growing network of live auction locations across the United States. Resulting in an innovative model where customer acquisition is largely offline and our monetization is largely online.
Web site: http://www.purplewave.com/
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