LiveJournal.com, a website and online community built around personal journals, was started by Brad Fitzpatrick in March of 1999 for himself and some of his friends. Friends told friends and it became a huge success, soon growing bigger than a single person could easily handle.

As a result, LiveJournal soon hired its first paid employee. This meant it was worked on on a full-time basis, for the first time. A team of volunteers working with LiveJournal's original developer, and the rest of the development team, transformed LiveJournal.com into a Webby Awards twice-winning site used by people worldwide.

The site is now an open-source software development project, funded by its members, assisted by numerous volunteers and developers, and overseen by a small paid staff. It has been expanded to allow easy creation of journals, weblogs, and even interest-based online communities.

Six Apart bought LiveJournal's parent company, Danga Interactive, in early 2005. Danga Interactive's founder, Brad Fitzpatrick, maintained links with the project, working as a staff-member at Six Apart into 2007. In December 2007 SUP bought LiveJournal, and established LiveJournal, Inc. to run it. Today, LiveJournal still relies heavily on volunteer efforts but also has a growing number of staff members.