Brett Allsop, Co-Founder of Yapta, Dies at 38

Gregory T. Huang8/19/09Comments (2)Follow @gthuang

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Xconomy is saddened to note that Brett Allsop, the chairman and co-founder of Seattle-based Yapta, died last night in a car accident in Bellingham, WA. Allsop was 38. The news was reported by the Bellingham Herald.

Allsop co-founded Yapta, an online travel site that tracks airfares and hotel prices, in 2006. The startup raised $2 million in venture capital in June from Voyager Capital and other investors, and a total of $7.7 million since it got started.

The Seattle Times quotes Yapta spokesman Jeff Pecor as saying, “We’re obviously deeply saddened about it. All our prayers and thoughts go out to the Allsop family.” TechFlash quotes Yapta co-founder and CEO Tom Romary as saying, “It is a tremendous loss. He was an exceptional person—ethical, bright, innovative—and I will miss him dearly.” A blog post on the Yapta website today reads, “Without Brett, there would have been no Yapta. He was a visionary and a great entrepreneur—and most importantly, a terrific guy.”

“I love helping to create that break through idea,” Allsop wrote on his LinkedIn page.

Allsop began his career by founding Fogdog, a leading online sporting goods retailer that was acquired by GSI Commerce (NASDAQ: GSIC) in 2000. He then joined Amadeus Capital in London where he evaluated investment opportunities in software. In 2003, he became president of his family’s business, Bellingham-based Allsop Inc., a computer and consumer electronic accessories company. Allsop was a Stanford University engineering alum, and was married with two children.

Gregory T. Huang is Xconomy's National IT Editor and the Editor of Xconomy Boston. You can e-mail him at gthuang@xconomy.com, call him at 617-252-7323, or follow him on Twitter at @gthuang.