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WhatsApp founder, Jan Koum: Journey from a cleaner to billionaire

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Building up dreams takes not much effort but turning them into life sometimes require more than an age. But if you firmly decide to follow your dreams until they become a reality, no power in this world can hinder your way.  Jan Koum, the co-founder and CEO of the most popular mobile app, WhatsApp, once worked as a cleaner. It was his hard work, commitment and passion that Facebook who rejected him once for job acquired WhatsApp for whopping $19 billion.

Jan Koum

Jan Koum was not born in riches; his father was a construction manager and mother, a housewife. Despite the financial crisis, the family lived in peace in a small village of Ukraine. But the uprisings brewing in Ukraine disrupted even their little happiness and he had to move to California along with his grandmother and mother when he was 16. However, his father could never make it to meet them after. The life for him changed to worse. Although they got a small apartment there but their daily needs remained unfulfilled. He had to wait in long queues to collect food stamps. He had to take up a job as a cleaner in a grocery shop to support his family while his mother took the job of babysitting to meet their ends. In all Koum then was leading a miserable life with little hope and scope for the betterment of their situation.

Love for computers and professional journey

Despite all these troubles Jan didn’t compromise with his studies and while studying in his high school he began developing love for computers and programming. By the time he completed his schooling he had already mastered in computer networking and was no less than a self-taught engineer. He then got himself admitted in San Jose State University to complete his education and at the same time took up a job successfully at Ernst & Young to meet up the expenses on his education. There he worked as a security tester which further intensified his passion for computers. Because of his love for programming and networking he finally managed to buy a computer at the age of 19. While working on an assignment of Ernst & Young where he had to test the security level in Yahoo’s advertising system, he met Brian Acton who then worked at Yahoo and later became the co-founder of WhatsApp.

Later Koum got a job at Yahoo as an infrastructure engineer while still pursuing his studies. But then came a time when he had to choose between two, either to continue his college or to secure his job at Yahoo. Although the decision was quite a risky one as his whole life depended upon this decision yet without much dallying he chose Yahoo. He worked for about 9 years there and developed close bonds with Brian Acton who held same interests as Koum.

Rejection by Facebook

After serving 9 years in Yahoo Koum found him getting clogged at the same place as the company did not offer him much scope to work in the field of social media which always allured him. And then again he took one of the most difficult and important decisions of quitting his job in 2007. Brian Acton too left the company at the same time to follow their interests in social media. Both then applied in Facebook and Twitter for jobs but got rejected. Yes! Jan Koum was not welcomed by Facebook and Twitter.

In 2009, he bought an iPhone and this is where sprouted the idea of WhatsApp. On looking at Apple app store, Koum felt the need and possibility for an application that could facilitate easy and cheap communication. He approached Acton with his idea and the duo then got themselves engrossed in the making of this app. They named it as WhatsApp Inc. in February 2009 and finally launched it in 2010.

WhatsApp

Today, WhatsApp is most popular app in 109 countries with more than one billion users. However, everything didn’t work as planned after the app was launched as it kept crashing in the initial phase and also the duo were finding it hard to promote the application. Their relentless efforts failed and after few months Koum decided to call off the whole project. But then Brian Acton came forward as a support system and infused hope in him and then the slope of their success never face a downfall. In October 2009, WhatsApp Inc raised $250,000 in seed funding. WhatsApp gained much popularity and the number of downloads kept increasing with 200 million users in February 2013 and crossed 1 billion in February 2016. Witnessing the rapid growth and increasing popularity of the app, Facebook acquired the app for $19 billion in the year 2014. As per the records, WhatsApp has become the most popular application for messaging and is used by one billion people today.

WhatsApp

Image Credit: Wikimedia.org, Jan image Credit: Flickr: Dan Taylor

Steve Jobs: The tech visionary who created such a lasting legacy

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Success and struggle are just like two sides of the same coin. A man who used to return Coke bottles to earn 5¢  to buy food, and  walk  7 miles every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple created a legacy which is flourishing even after his death.

Steve Jobs the man behind MAC, iPad, iPOD and iPhone was abandoned by his biological parent, fired from his own company and suffered from cancer. Despite all these ups and downs he never lost focus and love for technology. Coming generations would hardly believe that it was one man who revolutionized music, smartphone and computer industry.

Steve always loved technology and even in college days he preferred practical knowledge over bookish knowledge. Jobs’ interest in electronics began to smoke up as he extended a helping hand to his father’s garage and began to befriend many engineers living in his neighborhood.

Love what you do

In his high school Steve Jobs approached Hewlett Packard and asked for some parts for his school project. The boy’s boldness impressed him and he not only agreed to provide the parts but also offered him an internship at his office. This was indeed a great opportunity for Jobs to formally step into the techno world. While interning for Hewlett Packard he met Steve Wozniak who worked as an engineer there. Wozniak was very passionate about technology like Jobs and they both became friends to change the face of technology in the coming future.

Jobs then got entangled with his higher studies and finally admitted himself in Reed College. But it seemed he could not find his place there and therefore dropped out from the college after first semester. His inclination towards spirituality tempted him to visit India, yet the love for electronics never faded away.

Beginning the journey with Applesteve jobs yourtechstory

After he returned from India, Steve Jobs contacted Wozniak who then was busy in building a small computer. The idea caught up Jobs’ far sighted eyes and he proposed to take this computer into the business world with him. After convincing Wozniak they arranged to set up a shop at his father’s garage and named their business ‘Apple’. We therefore see how this topmost company sprouted from a garage. But as is the way of life, nothing goes smooth and easy and the task to collect seed money to start the business stood like a gigantic monster in front of them. Jobs sold his micro bus and Wozniak his calculator to make an investment of $1350. And this is how they introduced Apple I in 1975.

Although the computer could only get attention of hobbyists yet the sales collected decent amount of cash which gave them a way to redesign the computer into a better model. After 2 years, Apple II was launched in the market with coloured graphics and keyboard. The computer hit the market making huge success and made $3 million in its first year while the sales went up to $200 million in the next year. The success of Apple II marked a benchmark in the career of Steve Jobs.

Facing a downfall

Undoubtedly Apple II was a great success for Jobs but he failed to retain it for long. However, he did not put a pause to his efforts in introducing new designs and techniques to his computers but his efforts failed every time. The sales started decreasing with Apple III and LISA as new companies like IBM began to take over the market. But he never backed out and in 1984 Jobs brought another design in the market and named it as Apple Macintosh which came with a new user-friendly hardware, a mouse. But even this enhancement could not save him.

Jobs’ troubles didn’t seem to end here as the clash with his company’s board of directors in 1983 resulted in his losing of control over Apple in 1985. And eventually he had no other option than to sell his shares and resign. The irony of life could be exemplified best with this situation as Jobs was kicked out of the very company he founded.

NeXT

Stagnation was never meant for Steve Jobs and thus after resigning from Apple he launched another computer company named NeXT. But his aim to bring a revolution in the technical field did not come out as expected since the computers were highly expensive. Meanwhile, he also bought Pixar Animation Studios in 1986 which became the most important stepping stone in his career. With Pixar he made an animation film ‘Toy Story’ which was a smash hit. The great success of ‘Toy Story’ raised Pixar’s 80% shares to $1 billion.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish

Just after Pixar was made public, Apple bought NeXT for $400 million and gave Jobs a position as an advisor to the company’s CEO. But the company faced a failure in keeping up its old position and dealt with a quarterly loss of $708 million. As a result of this, the then CEO of Apple resigned from his position and Steve Jobs got back hold of the company by seating himself as the new CEO of Apple. He raised the company value by signing deal with Microsoft and also brought in new technology fronts in the computers. In no time the company’s sales revived and reached to $5.9 billion. Jobs then expanded the company with new products like iPod, iPhone and iPad. However, struggling with ill health Jobs resigned from his position as CEO in 2011.

Steve Jobs’ journey could be summed up in his own words uttered at Stanford University in 2005. His success could be traced by “connecting the dots” of the events that took place. Every turn of his life proved to be of immense importance at some point later. From taking the risk to drop out from the college to resigning from his own company, his decisions led him to better prospects. And his mantra of life, “keep looking, don’t settle” unless you are truly satisfied with what you are doing is worth adopting. It was his relentless efforts and uncompromising attitude that made him the pioneer of techno world. The legacy still continues with latest iPhone 7 and AirPods.

Jobs historic Standford address about life, love and loss

“If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?”

Infographic Credit: Funders and Founders
Info graphic Credit: Funders and Founders

The journey of this man from the dusty streets to a $100 million IPO

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It is a universally acknowledged fact that the combination of talent and persistent efforts always pay off well. Hurdles and hardships become easy to handle when you have firm determination and a positive attitude towards your goal and life. Most of the successful people talk about hopefulness and hard work as mantras to success. Even a small idea can change the face of your entire life if you are determined to take it further. Same is what the co-founder and CTO of HubSpot, Dharmesh Shah speaks of when he talks about his journey towards success.

No idea is big or small

Dharmesh Shah had a deep interest in technology and at the same time he wanted start his own business. He first established a company named Pyramid Digital Solutions at the age of 23 with his 17 year old brother. It is no less than a surprise to know that he bootstrapped the company in less than $10,000. As stated by Shah himself, he faced a number of hurdles while hiring employees for the first time and also being a beginner there had been issues in cash flow as well but all of this couldn’t pull him back even for a moment. This is how his first company could be seen as a smack on the faces of all those who do not believe in small or medium scale business. With such less amount invested in the company, Dharmesh Shah took it to various levels of growth and got the Inc. 500 award thrice for it. He devotedly worked for the company for about 11 years and in 2005 sold it to SunGuard Business Systems for millions.

HubSpot

The hunger for knowledge and desire to expand his business drove him to acquire an MS degree from MIT in the management of technology. His education itself states how he had been into both technology and management at the same time. Although after selling Pyramid Digital Systems, Dharmesh Shah promised his wife to be aloof from setting up a start-up and find his

Image Credit: Wikipedia
Image Credit: Wikipedia

contentment and settlement in investing in other companies yet his desire and thirst for more led him into the business market again. And in 2006, he founded the most successful company of his career, HubSpot along with his college friend Brian Halligan. Their intentions to take the company to its pedestal of success could be observed right from the beginning as the two founders started a blog for the company even before the product was launched. This inbound marketing technique boosted the popularity of the product when it actually came in the market. These strategies adopted and well pursued by Shah and Halligan marked the early growth of the company. Dharmesh Shah has set up a great example for all the potential entrepreneurs for how to use their knowledge and learn from the experiences in order to build a successful company.

Work Ethics and Transparency

The basic agenda for any business to be a success according to Dharmesh Shah is transparency. Unlike other businessmen who like to conceal company’s important information and strategies, Dharmesh Shah believes that to maintain a healthy and pleasant atmosphere, each and every employee must know everything about the company. Shah always promotes a friendly work culture within the company and treats his employees as no less important. This transparency builds up trust of the employees for the owner. Shah has given importance to company culture along with other business priorities. This is the reason why he had come across minimum number of controversies as compared to other successful businesses.

Coding is still his first love

Even after coming in the list of world’s top entrepreneurs, Dharmesh Shah has clung himself to his roots. His passion for coding is still the same as before and writing code every day is just like another habit for him. Coding rejuvenates his mind and keeps him “in touch with reality” as he states.

Dharmesh Shah has deep interest in blogging and social media and has also founded an online community for blogging, OnStartups.com. The journey of Dharmesh Shah based on his strict principles and morals make him an outstanding entrepreneur and an inspiring personality.

RedBus: Struggle for a bus ticket that gave rise to $100 million company

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Life changing ideas many times are result of real life problems, situations & experiences. Something of same sort happened with Phanindra Sama which led to founding of redBus that got acquired for $100 million.

How the idea sprouted
In the year 2005,  Sama decided to take an off for some days from work to be with his family. However, due to the festive season he could not get any ticket for his hometown and this led him to visit several travel agents so as to manage for the bus ticket. But ultimately he failed to reach his home and went back to spend the Diwali night alone in his flat. When he tried to collect the information about how the process of ticket selling and buying works, he was left with insufficient facts. The lack of interface between agents and customers perturbed him so much that he began thinking to resolve this problem. Phanindra Sama’s idea to put together technology and bus ticketing together by providing an e-platform to the customers to buy bus tickets marked the beginning of redBus.

sama
Image Credit: World Economic Forum, Flickr

Idea validation and success
Although Sama succeeded in convincing his 2 friends from Pilani to work on the idea yet the initial phase towards success was quite troublesome for all three. To come out of their comfort zone was the first hurdle they had to overcome. Pampered by their jobs, they now had to take the biggest risk of their lives, of quitting their jobs.

For a period of five months they dedicated all their focus to create the software called BOSS that could support the bus operators to manage their functioning and at the same time giving Sama, the status of seats of each bus. But happened was something that gave a setback to their enthusiasm, none of the operators they approached showed any interest in their proposal.

redBus
Image Credit: Wikipedia

Indeed the idea could not tempt the target operators but it did leave its impact in the market. To buckle up for a long journey they needed investment for their business and this is when they approached a non-profit organization, TIE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) in February 2006. TiE gave them the much needed seed funding of $1 million.

They now tried to concentrate on customers first and then the bus operators and this time their plan successfully worked out. Although the initial seven months of the startup went through financial crisis for Phanindra Sama and his friends but in 2007 they managed to raise the funding to $5 million. And then it seemed as if their business got wings. In the year 2011  redBus sold half a million tickets on a daily basis working with 700 bus operators in 15 states.

Acquisition by Ibibo and the related controversies
In 2013 Phanindra Sama got a very tempting offer from Ibibo to take over redBus in $100 million. Considering the future prospects of redBus as well as his own life, Sama decided to sell his company with the consent of his partners. After selling the company Sama went on a vacation with his parents for 10 days.  But those 10 days changed the whole game and in no time his happiness turned all dismal.

When he was abroad, some of the major designations started falling apart as the COO and three other managers quit their job. The change in working style with this sudden decision of selling the company left the employees with anxiety and anger against Sama.

Sama’s decision created a situation of chaos among the employees as except the three business partners each of the employee of redBus suffered a great loss. People holding ESOPs (Employee Stock Options) didn’t get their money while others were clueless why they did not have ESOPs. Although, Phanindra Sama tried to calm the situation what he could but the suppressed anger of employees couldn’t make them trust him again. ESOPs is very misused employee compensation alternative in India. Many startups in India offer ESOPs to employees but how may are actually benefited at last?

 

From spending nights on the stairs of Masjid to CEO of $60 million company

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Success does not always need to get along with grey hair; some people change the stereotypes. Among few such people, Ritesh Agarwal possesses a remarkable position. No doubt he has shown wonders in the world of entrepreneurship and made all the competitors to gape their mouth wide open. As it is said that everyone sees dreams but only few can turn them into reality; Ritesh Agarwal’s dedication and immense talent made his dream come true. The path chosen by him was not better than a jigsaw but his incessant efforts made it possible to overcome all odds and build a successful empire.

Imprints of talent right from childhood

Agarwal was drawn towards coding and computers since he was 8 years old. Pursuing his desire to become a self-made man, he undertook a project at the age of 13, when kids hardly are aware about career and jobs. The project gave him a life time experience and set a milestone in his career. During the project he traveled a lot and analyzed how the hotel system works. You can that see his relation with hotels had been established at that age only.

However, his love for computers enchanted him towards technical line and at the age of 16, he was selected in the Asian Science Camp at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai. His resolution to follow science led him to Kota for the preparation of one of the most reputed technical entrances in India. Meanwhile at Kota he authored the book ‘The Encyclopaedia of Indian Engineering Colleges’. But he could not locate his real aim there as well. Exploring the motive of his life he moved to Delhi in 2011 where sprouted his first business idea.

Image Credit- oyorooms.com

A journey full of risks and struggle

Passion to start off something on his own had always been there in him. Ritesh’s decision to drop out his formal education and step into the business world proved to be a life changing one. At the age of 17 he laid the foundation of a company named Worth Growth Partners and became India’s youngest CEO. However, the company couldn’t take him to a higher ladder of success and the very year he was hard struck by financial crisis. He had no money to pay the rent and henceforth spent several nights on the stairs of Masjid in Delhi.

But all these hurdles could not budge Ritesh from his aim and the next year he founded another company, Oravel. This business could be called as an Indian version of the site Airbnb, dealing with bed and breakfast hotels. The idea grew fast within a short span and he received a funding of Rs.30 Lakhs from VentureNursery. The efficiency of his efforts and skills made him the only Indian to get the Thiel Fellowship where he was granted an amount of $100,000.  Ritesh had a thing for learning from always and this led him to acquire more knowledge about the entrepreneurial world from all the possible sources.

Renaming the company to OYO

Ritesh’s itch of seeking better responses from a larger section of society took him to the idea of OYO stays. He could see that Oravel targeted limited number of customers who could spare a large amount from their pickets. Therefore, he himself visited and stayed at several budget hotels to have a closer understanding of the needs of customers. After this he used most of the grant from Thiel to build the OYO chain to provide the best stay in the branded budget hotels.

The journey wasn’t a smooth one there as well as he started the journey with a single hotel in Gurgaon where he handled the duties of CEO, housekeeping and sales single-handedly. However the company soon geared up and received a funding of  $650,000 from Lightspeed Venture Partners and DSG consumer Partners. OYO rooms and Ritesh Agarwal didn’t turn back then and progressed with more investors getting along with them. In just 10 months it received $6 million from Sequoia Capital and LSVP at a pre-money valuation of $60 million.

When Controversies surrounded Ritesh Agarwal

The success story of Ritesh attracted a number of haters and criticizers who could not swallow the fact that a man as young as 22 could build such a huge business. People questioned his skills of coding and called him a liar and fake. He was also accused of blurring the funding records of company. His former relations with NCrypted Technologies also came in the limelight when the latter accused Ritesh of stealing their idea. However there were no real evidences found against Ritesh.

People are always ready to grab the opportunity to pull you back but the story of Ritesh Agarwal, who fought against all odds and established himself as a successful person will always inspire youngsters.

Repeated failures couldn’t stop this entrepreneur from becoming a billionaire

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Robert Parsons popularly known as Bob Parsons’ life had been similar to that of a roller-coaster ride. He was born in a financially unstable family. The struggle of life began right there. Looking at his disinterest in studies he was sent to a traditional Catholic school in Baltimore where nuns treated students with hard hands. However, it proved not much beneficial for his academic career. Once failed in fifth standard, Parsons couldn’t develop love for books. His entire school life had been huddled with poor grades. Despite all this one thing which Bob always knew was how to make money. He always managed to have cash in pocket by doing odd jobs like delivering papers, mowing lawns or shoveling snow.

Beginning of a new journey

After completing his intermediate somehow, Parsons got himself admitted in the Marine Corps in Vietnam. It was not an easy go life there either. The war and bloodshed had a deep impact on his mind. Indeed like any other person he was nervous and thrilled but then he made a resolution to deal with whatever comes. This became a major turning point in his life. His determination developed in the days of war at Vietnam filled in him the spirit to face each and every challenge that might try to block his way.

After getting back to home, he enrolled himself at the University of Baltimore to complete his graduation in accounting, after which he secured a job as an accountant in a company in Redwood City. One day, while visiting to company’s office he threw a glance upon a book of BASIC programming language. He was so lured by the thought of programming that he went ahead and bought the book. And in no time his interest for computers became a full time hobby.

Image Credit: Wikimedia

Take chances in life

Now this was the time when he turned his hobby into a business idea. In the year 1984, Bob Parsons invested an amount of $15,000 he had saved from his previous jobs at Vietnam and Redwood City to lay the foundation of Parsons Technology. It basically dealt with software based on accounting. No success story is worth if the journey is not posed with challenges and hurdles, Parsons tasted a heavy failure in 1985 with a loss of about $25,000. This did give his company a punching blow but couldn’t stop him from making his way through it. He tried to track the place where his efforts lacked in. It was his marketing strategy that wasn’t paying him well and then his next move set a benchmark in his life.

Parsons’ motive was not just to make money; rather, he wanted his idea and services to be in knowledge of as many people as possible. And this led him to spend an amount of $5000 to fetch a front-page advertisement on a regional computer publication cover. This risk turned out to be one that of profit as the sales got a new boost. Now he knew where exactly to strike and he approached bigger publications to advertise his company. Finally the retail price of Parsons Technology grew by 90% making $100 million annual revenue. In 1994, Bob Parsons sold the company to Intuit for $64 million.

Becoming big daddy of  web world

After selling his company, Parsons was left with huge amount of money but had dearth of ideas. However, in 1997 he founded another company Jomax Technologies which provided services to build websites for other people. Parsons wanted to make the company name a bit catchy before registering it officially and therefore in 2000 he renamed it to GoDaddy. For a period of 4 years, incessant failures made Parsons go dejected as he lost all his money with just $6 million dollars left in hand. He had decided to take his steps back and was almost about to quit when he witnessed a hotel’s valet happy and satisfied unlike him. This motivated him to take an about-turn and make a firm resolution to stand and face all obstacles and keep trying until he tastes the success. His dedication and relentless efforts turned out to be successful and the firm started making profits.

In the year 2011, Parsons stepped down from the post of CEO to executive chairman and sold a major portion of the domain name registrar and Web-hosting firm GoDaddy to private firms KKR, Silver Lake Partners and TCV acquiring $2.3 billion. Holding about $930 million in cash, Parsons later diversified his business portfolio by making investments. He todays owns shopping malls, vehicle dealerships, a lending firm and Scottsdale National Golf Club.

Takeaway from Bob Parson’s story is to be passionate about something, be ready to fail, be ready to adapt, try, try and keep doing the good work.