Who founded and operates factually.co?
Executive summary
A targeted search of the reporting provided finds no authoritative record identifying who founded or currently operates the domain factually.co; none of the supplied sources mention that exact site. The sources do document multiple similarly named organizations—Factal (factal.com), Factual (data company), The Factual (news-rating startup) and a U.K. company called Factually Limited—so any quick claim about factually.co’s founders or operators risks conflating distinct entities unless corroborating evidence about the specific domain is produced [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. Why the question is harder than it looks: similarly named organizations crowd the space
The ecosystem of news- and data-branded companies includes several near-identical names that appear in the sources: Factal (an alerting/verification service created by the founders of BreakingNews.com and with named leaders such as Charlie Tillinghast) is described on its About page as based in Seattle and tied to BreakingNews.com origins [1], a separate company called Factual (a location/data platform) is attributed to Gil Elbaz in database profiles [2], and The Factual (an algorithmic news-rating firm) was co-founded by Arjun Moorthy and Ajoy Sojan and acquired by Yahoo [3] [5]; additionally, UK filings show a Factually Limited entity exists in Companies House [4]. Any attempt to identify the founder/operator of factually.co must first disambiguate which legal or commercial entity the domain represents, because these similarly named organizations have different founders and purposes [1] [2] [3] [4].
2. What the sources explicitly say about the similarly named firms (useful context, not a direct answer)
Factal’s own site states it was “created by the founders of BreakingNews.com at NBC News” and highlights leadership including Charlie Tillinghast, who previously ran MSNBC Interactive and chartered BreakingNews as an internal startup [1]. The data company Factual is credited to Gil Elbaz in third-party company profiles [2]. The Factual—a distinct startup focused on algorithmic credibility scores—was co-founded by Arjun Moorthy (CEO) and Ajoy Sojan (CTO) and was acquired by Yahoo, with both co-founders moving into roles at Yahoo after the deal [3] [5]. These are firm statements in the record, but none refer to the factually.co domain itself [1] [2] [3] [5].
3. What is missing from the record about factually.co and why that matters
None of the supplied snippets or documents contain a URL, WHOIS, press release, company profile, or corporate filing that ties the name “factually.co” to any of the above organizations or to unique founders/operators [1] [3] [2] [4]. Because the provenance of a domain is principally established through domain registration records, company filings, or an “About” page hosted at that domain, the absence of such a reference in the provided reporting prevents a definitive attribution; authoritative assignment would require either direct evidence from factually.co itself or public records that name its principals, neither of which appear among the supplied sources [4].
4. How confusion can produce misleading attributions and what to watch for
The close similarities in branding—Factal, Factual, The Factual, Factually Limited—create a high risk of misattribution if sources are lumped together without care; for example, attributing The Factual’s founders or Yahoo’s statements to some other “Factual/Factal/Factually” would be an error because the entities differ in product, location, and leadership [1] [3] [2]. The provided record shows independent, verifiable founders for those named firms (Charlie Tillinghast linked to Factal founders of BreakingNews.com [1]; Gil Elbaz for Factual [2]; Arjun Moorthy and Ajoy Sojan for The Factual [3] [5]), which underscores the importance of not assuming identity across similar names.
5. Recommended next steps to establish who founded and operates factually.co
To resolve this definitively, consult the factually.co site itself for an About or masthead, check WHOIS/domain registration records for registrant names and organization, search corporate registries and press coverage tied to that exact domain, or request the information directly from any contact listed on the site; those methods are standard for attributing domain ownership and are necessary because the assembled sources do not contain that specific attribution [4].