Is
an American internet entrepreneur and computer engineer. He is the CEO and
co-founder of WhatsApp (with Brian Acton), a mobile messaging application which
was acquired by Facebook Inc. in February 2014 for US$19 Billion.
Jan Koum is
from the Ukraine and moved to Mountain View (California) when he was 16 years
old. His family was financially challenged and they had to live of food stamps.
It was not before he was 19 that he owned his first computer. Koum was part of
the famous hackers network called woowoo , where other famous tech
entrepreneurs Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning were
also part of.
Koum went to San Jose State
University to study math and computer science, he would eventually drop out
after David File, a co-founder of Yahoo!, convinced him to work for him. Before
dropping out of college he worked for Ernst
and Young as a security tester.
Brian Acton
grew up in central Florida and went to two different universities before
graduating from Stanford University in 1994 with a degree in computer sciences.
After getting his degree he started working for Apple as a software engineer.
It was in 1996 that he started working for Yahoo! as the 44th employee. Acton
began as a software engineer, focussing on Advertising and Data Processing.
How
they met
Koum met Acton while he was
working for Ernst & Young as a security tester and was assigned to inspect
Yahoo!’s advertising system. Acton recalls that he found Koum to be very
different from the other Ernst and Young people, he was more straight forward.
It turned out
Koum liked Acton’s no-nonsense style: “Neither of us has an ability to
bullshit,” says Koum. Six months later Koum interviewed at Yahoo! and got a job
as a software engineer. During their time at Yahoo their friendship grew and by
2007 they both quit their jobs and traveled through South-America and played
ultimate frisbee.
WhatsApp
Koum came up with the idea for
WhatsApp in 2009 during a movie night at a friends place. It started out as an
idea to send notifications to friends, but soon evolved to an instant messaging
app. Acton got involved after a match of ultimate frisbee. Koum was telling
Acton that he thought about giving up and wanted look for steady job. Acton
replied by saying
By fall 2009,
WhatsApp had no significant growth, but Koum persuaded Acton to join him. Both
Koum and Acton were rejected for jobs at Facebook. Acton would also be turned
down by Twitter. In October of 2009 Acton contacted several old Yahoo buddies
and got together 250.000 dollars in seed funding. This earned Acton the title
of co-founder and he received shares.
Between October 2009 and June 2015
a lot has happened. After getting investments from venture capitalist firm
Sequoia and eventually being bought by Facebook, Whatsapp is still growing and
it is reported to have 800
million monthly active users by April of 2015. Koum and Acton are still leading
WhatsApp and still work together.
The
key to success
So what made this collaboration
successful? What is the secret ingredient that helped Whatsapp become the
largest messaging platform in the world?
“We’re the most atypical Silicon
Valley company you’ll come across,” Acton explains to Wired UK. “We were
founded by thirty somethings; we focused on business sustainability and revenue
rather than getting big fast; we’ve been incognito almost all the time; we’re
mobile first; and we’re global first.”
“WhatsApp is simple, secure, and
fast. It does not ask you to spend time building up a new graph of your
relationships; instead, it taps the one that’s already there. Jan and Brian’s
decisions are fueled by a desire to let people communicate with no
interference,” writes Goetz, a venture capitalist at Sequoia Capital in Silicon
Valley.
Acton describes the duo as Yin and
Yang, Acton being the optimist and Koum more paranoid. Acton focusses on the
financial side of the business and Koum looks at the product. Koum is the CEO
and Acton the person that makes sure stuff gets done.
Koum and Acton wanted WhatsApp to
be different, they did not seek attention and didn’t even have a sign at their
office. Both men share a passion for hating advertisement and Jan even has a
note from Brian on his desk saying “No Ads! No Games! No Gimmicks”. It makes
sure that the WhatsApp keeps it focus on its core functionality, messaging.
Five
things we can learn from Jan and Brian
1.
You are never too old
to start a business, not even a tech business.
Acton even argues that their age is an advantage, saying that his vision is not
clouded by the urge to be cool, they just want to be practical.
2.
Persistence is the
only way. The
story of Koum is one of a lot hardship and let downs, Brian lost a fortune in
the dotcom bubble and got rejected by multiple companies, but both men came out
on top through hard work and perseverance.
3.
Having a common
interest is key to success. One
might argue that if there was no ultimate frisbee, there would be no Whatsapp.
These men became friends on the workfloor, but stayed in contact through their
love for the sport. And it was at one of these matches Acton told Koum that he
shouldn’t give up.
4.
Make sure your
co-founder is the yin to your yang. You can really see in
this case how important it is that the person you work with fills the gaps that
you are missing. Your co-founder should have all the qualities you don’t have.
5.
Think long term,
together. Acton
and Koum had a clear vision of what their product was going to be. They both
were on the same page and understood exactly what their product is and more
important, what is was going to be.
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