Jimmy Wales the Nupedia and Wikipedia projects until Bomis discontinued funding for his position in February 2002; Sanger resigned as editor-in-chief of Nupedia and as "chief organizer" of Wikipedia on March 1 of that year. Early on, Bomis supplied the financial backing for Wikipedia, and entertained the notion of placing advertisements on Wikipedia before costs were reduced with Sanger's departure and plans for a nonprofit foundation were advanced instead. Wales has asserted that he is the sole founder of Wikipedia, and has publicly disputed Sanger's designation as a co-founder. Sanger and Wales were identified as co-founders at least as early as September
History of Wikipedia "He used to work for me [...] I don't agree with calling him a co-founder, but he likes the title"; nonetheless, before January 2004, Wales did not dispute Sanger's status as co-founder and, indeed, identified himself as "co-founder" as late as August 2002. In Sanger's introductory message to the Nupedia mailing list, he said that "Jimmy Wales contacted me and asked me to apply as editor-in-chief of Nupedia. Apparently, Bomis, Inc. (which owns Nupedia)... who could manage this sort of long-term project, he thought I would be perfect for the job. This is indeed my dream job". Sanger said "He