If you would ask Leroy de Rouwe to describe himself he would say he is a: “Humoristic and social web specialist with a big passion for technique, 10 years of experience and a weak spot for coffee.” That is, until yesterday. Because since yesterday he is known as the Dutchmen who sold the domain name Whatsapp.com to WhatsApp founder Jan Koum. I figured it would be time to get in contact with Leroy and let him share his story.

In 2008 Leroy was playing with the idea to start an app review site and came up with the name Whatsapp.com. Not aware of the fact that at the very same moment two guys in Sillicon Valley were working on a chat client bearing the exact same name. Put off by the enormous amount of apps, Leroy decided to put his plans on ice for a while.

At the end of 2008 several interested parties made contact with Leroy regarding his domain name. A man named Jan Koum, with roots in Ukraine, made a concrete offer at first contact. Leroy, who initially had doubts about the success of a new chat client amongst the dozen already available clients got infected by the overwhelming enthusiasm Jan Koum radiated when explaining him in detail the opportunities of his new product WhatsApp.

After several extended e-mail conversations, Leroy decides to sell his domain name late 2008. Not so much driven by financial gain, but mostly because of the like factor and the enthusiasm and persuasion of Jan Koum forecasting WhatsApp to be a ‘very nice product’.

Jan Koum has regulary informed Leroy after the domain name takeover about the developments of WhatsApp and Leroy sees this whole story as a very entertaining story at birthdays and social events.

Meanwhile the rest of the story has become history. Jan Koum has sold WhatsApp for a stunning amount of 16 billion dollar to Facebook.