So Bucci couldn't stay if the investors had decided it was time to find someone else to scale up the business, which has grown from 170 office, warehouse, marketing and software workers last winter to around 220 since the big deal.



But the company line, and Bucci's, is that he's the one who recognized and decided — after nine years as a start-it, grow-it guy — that it's time to let a run-it person take over.



This wasn't anyone's plan all along, when you merged with JW Child and Cycle Gear last winter? "I did not see it coming," Bucci told me.



What he wrote back in February when word of the deal leaked out: "RevZilla could easily follow the double yellow [lines down the highway] and be successful doing what we’ve always done. But we like new challenges, placing big bets and playing to win...



"We also like to think that we understand the next generation of commerce and have the vision to shape what we believe the future should be. It’s in our DNA as entrepreneurs... Matt, Nick and I are still firmly at the helm."