How in the world did he get that domain name?

I've had it on back order through snapnames, namejet and pool since before summer! The previous registrant was also unresponsive :P

Did he shell out some big bucks for it?

Anyway, despite my utter surprise at this I wish you luck.

I think the cofounder list has potential to become something useful, not to mention if the feedback from the community is good, it can be developed into something real nice.