11–20 of 61 posts
It is very nice to have first mover advantage. Many web and mobile application companies today do not have first mover advantage. This was a good talk to listen to if you have quietly stumbled on something that people want before the rest of the product builders find out.
WhatsApp focused (correctly) on distribution over several platforms.
Jan is the entrepreneur that I admire the most. Here are some of the reasons: 1. He was so focused on building the product that he just ignored all emails from carriers and investors. Sequoia partners had to hunt down Whatsapp's office just to get in touch with him. Most entrepreneurs would be easily distracted by investor attention. 2. He didn't care about the press (despite a ton of inbound interest). I don't know…
> 3. Very balanced outlook towards global users - even though SV (or even US) didn't recognize their traction, he always understood that there is a big world out there where not everyone has an iPhone. This impressed me the most, because at the time whatsapp went mainstream globally - it was available on all platforms including the old BlackberryOS, BlackBerry 10, Symbian (S60), Windows Phone and even some candy phon…
While Whatsapp is still not as big in the US, it's literally the defacto mode of communication in countries like India, Brazil etc. to the point where "Msg me" would automatically mean "Msg me on Whatsapp"
That + the fact that it was tied to your phone number was in my opinion genius. I for a thousand years would not have though too much about Global Market (because I'd be focused on revenue and users in 1st world countries would be generally the ones with spending cash for messaging apps).
It is very nice to have first mover advantage. Many web and mobile application companies today do not have first mover advantage. This was a good talk to listen to if you have quietly stumbled on something that people want before the rest of the product builders find out.
But they didn't have first mover advantage. There was ping and a few other similar apps on the iOS app store. WhatsApp focused (correctly) on distribution over several platforms.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
But they didn't have first mover advantage. There was ping and a few other similar apps on the iOS app store. WhatsApp focused (correctly) on distribution over several platforms.
BBM had huge potential as well in the early days. Blackberry practically invented this "SMS-alternative" type of chat application. It was being quickly adopted in emerging markets as a replacement for SMS, which was much more expensive. However, Blackberry screwed that up by keeping BBM Blackberry-only for so long. The BBM should have been available on the iOS and Android stores (and probably on Symbian/Java) since 2…
Jan is the entrepreneur that I admire the most. Here are some of the reasons: 1. He was so focused on building the product that he just ignored all emails from carriers and investors. Sequoia partners had to hunt down Whatsapp's office just to get in touch with him. Most entrepreneurs would be easily distracted by investor attention. 2. He didn't care about the press (despite a ton of inbound interest). I don't know…
But this is also success bias. If he didn't succeed the same points would be used against him. Winners make their own rules and hindsight is a bad teacher.
These same points he avoided for instance partnerships and press may have worked for other successful founders.
Jan is the entrepreneur that I admire the most. Here are some of the reasons: 1. He was so focused on building the product that he just ignored all emails from carriers and investors. Sequoia partners had to hunt down Whatsapp's office just to get in touch with him. Most entrepreneurs would be easily distracted by investor attention. 2. He didn't care about the press (despite a ton of inbound interest). I don't know…
Jan is the entrepreneur that I admire the most. Here are some of the reasons: 1. He was so focused on building the product that he just ignored all emails from carriers and investors. Sequoia partners had to hunt down Whatsapp's office just to get in touch with him. Most entrepreneurs would be easily distracted by investor attention. 2. He didn't care about the press (despite a ton of inbound interest). I don't know…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
But they didn't have first mover advantage. There was ping and a few other similar apps on the iOS app store. WhatsApp focused (correctly) on distribution over several platforms.
BBM had huge potential as well in the early days. Blackberry practically invented this "SMS-alternative" type of chat application. It was being quickly adopted in emerging markets as a replacement for SMS, which was much more expensive. However, Blackberry screwed that up by keeping BBM Blackberry-only for so long. The BBM should have been available on the iOS and Android stores (and probably on Symbian/Java) since 2…
Jan is the entrepreneur that I admire the most. Here are some of the reasons: 1. He was so focused on building the product that he just ignored all emails from carriers and investors. Sequoia partners had to hunt down Whatsapp's office just to get in touch with him. Most entrepreneurs would be easily distracted by investor attention. 2. He didn't care about the press (despite a ton of inbound interest). I don't know…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
BBM had huge potential as well in the early days. Blackberry practically invented this "SMS-alternative" type of chat application. It was being quickly adopted in emerging markets as a replacement for SMS, which was much more expensive. However, Blackberry screwed that up by keeping BBM Blackberry-only for so long. The BBM should have been available on the iOS and Android stores (and probably on Symbian/Java) since 2…
yes of course - because having a random 8 digit hex pin was so user friendly, easy and intuitive :)