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skype

Skype : A Communication App that Won the World

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In the last few decades, the world has changed a lot. What seemed to be impossible a few years ago, is being executed with zero effort today. With the boom in entrepreneurship and startups getting the hang of the wave, human life is at its technological best. Our generation has witnessed a large number of success stories, but not every one of it has managed to stay with us for so long. The inventions that change the world are the ones that feed the depriving hearts of society. The success story of Skype is one such idea that changed the very nature of web business by revolutionizing the chat connectivity of the virtual world.

Founded in the year 2003 by Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom, Skype turned out to be the biggest surprise that changed the face of online communication for the years to come. One can say that Skype lessened the distance between people, or in other words, started bringing people together. It gained almost 6000 subscribers within just one week of its launch, and this is when the duo realized that they are in for something huge. This realization proved to be true as we look at the trail they have left behind.

Janus and Niklas developed the application with the help of a group of highly skilled individuals, namely Ahti Heinia, Priit Kasesalu, and Jaan Tallinn. The most attractive aspect of Skype is that it is free. During a time when the telecom industry charged a fortune for international calls, Skype provided free video calls through the usage of P2P connectivity. It was an actual boon to the people who were separated from their loved ones through distance. It also mitigated the location issues for major business meetings and other official programs.

skype founders
Image Source: taliawebs.com

Like every huge success story, Skype, too, has a humble beginning. Zennstrom was collecting the telephone bills of his friend in Europe when he realized how huge the telecom companies charge for long-distance phone calls. This is what led to the invention of Skype, as simple as that. They wanted to avert the escalating telephone bills and wanted to make communications across the globe more cheap and efficient.

Within just two years of its inception, Skype already had 20 million active users and was growing at an exponential rate of 5 new users per second. This growth soon attracted a lot of attention from huge names such as eBay and Microsoft. eBay later in 2005, acquired Skype for a whopping sum of 3.5 billion USD. The most successful project of the internet industry, Skype, again get attracted the interest of other tech giants. And, this time, Microsoft acquired Skype for 8.5 billion USD.

The innovation by a team of young minds changed the way people talk across the globe. It was an extravagant success, as there is no greater deed than filling the deficiency of society.

Back in 2003, it was the need for a more efficient and low-cost communication system. The founders say that they were very naïve and highly optimistic in their journey throughout Skype. But it was this same spirit that led them to launch the service. They did not dive into the what-ifs and other nitty-gritty of all the things that could go wrong. The other main highlight of the concept was that there was nothing much complicated about functioning. There were no complicated procedures or troubling interface. Everything was simple and clear. This also was a contributing factor to the immense success of the idea.

Every big change starts from a small spark. This spark comes to every one of us. The ones who can latch on to the spark and ignite a fire become successful. These build unicorn companies, multi-million dollar empires and some even end up becoming legends. Skype provides the biggest example of how small ideas can revolutionize the world. It started a chain of changes that still ripples across the surface of the virtual world and how people communicate with each other.

kik

Ted Livingston : The Journey of the Founder of Kik Messenger

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Establishing a new innovative start-up is the ultimate dream of every young entrepreneur out there. And, especially, if a mind has both excellent technical skills and impressive business strategies, wonders can be created. But, how many of us realize that the real voyage begins after one has accomplished his or her dreams? Because with great power comes great responsibilities. Reaching the zenith is easier than holding onto it. It is obvious that one will face ups and downs during the entire journey of success, but one must be strong enough to not give up or choose a wrong path.

Ted Livingston, founder of Kik Messenger and an incredible tech genius, was sentenced to death in 9th June 2019 for committing fraud, drug trafficking and an endless chain of illegal activities. He confessed all of his crimes saying that he did everything to save his company from bankruptcy, though the press release gives enough evidence of Kik’s short-term success. He started the company after he was rejected by RIM (Research in Motion), which led him to join the Velocity program, and finally, open his own start-up. So, let’s have a look into Livingston’s life before he hit such a massive crisis.

Early Life

Livingston was born in 1987, in Toronto, Ontario to a prosperous family. His father was a financial advisor, and his mother worked in the advertising sector. From a very young age, Livingston showed a great interest in building robots, and he joined the robotics team of his school. He went to Crescent School in Toronto and graduated from there in 2005.

Higher Studies and Early Career

Ted Livingston founder kik
Image Source: Twitter

Livingston pursued a Bachelor’s degree in mechatronics at the University of Waterloo, but he dropped out later. During his time at the university, he took part in the Waterloo co-op program and landed placements at Honda and City of Toronto Government.

In 2007, he started working as a Systems Engineering Project Coordinator at RIM, and then, as a Technical Product Management Coordinator. The internship was a part of his engineering course, and, Livingston once said about it that the best part about the internship was having a smartphone with a full data plan which was very expensive at that time.

Since he acquired a very lucrative position at RIM, during his internship, he got to work with every product manager individually and learnt a lot of new things. He was so good at his job that his boss advised him not to go for a full-time job in RIM and rather open his own company. This was all the motivation he needed, and hence, he turned down the job at RIM in 2008.

Founding KiK

Ted went back to Waterloo to complete his Bachelor’s degree, but somehow he ended up participating in the Velocity program followed by founding KiK. At first, Livingston created KiK Music, which was then known as Unsycned for RIM (later known as Blackberry). The app was connected to BBM to allow users to share soundtracks via messenger. But, KiK had bigger plans, which were blatantly turned down by RIM. So, Livingston and his team started working on the Kik messaging app on their own, and it was released on 19th October 2010.

While messaging apps like WhatsApp and Ping were already ruling the market, KiK hit one million users within 15 days of its release. Pretty impressive for an infant company, isn’t it? Though KiK was initially released for iOS and BlackBerry, BlackBerry removed it in November 2010 from BlackBerry App World followed by filing a lawsuit against KiK, which was settled later in 2013.

Success of KiK

In 2014, KiK raised $38.3 million from Series C funding followed by $50 million in the next year, thus resulting in KiK’s total worth to $1 billion. Gradually, KiK decided to raise funding in cryptocurrencies, and it raised $125 million cryptocurrencies through an ICO in September 2017.

In June 2018, Kin Coin (for cryptocurrencies) was released officially in Beta version, and in the next month, Kinit Beta App was released which was exclusively for the US residents.

Death Sentence of Livingston

The news of Livingston’s death sentence hit like an unexpected jolt to the world. He was accused of multiple reasons which included conduction of an illegal ICO, drug trafficking, prostitution and fraud. And finally, he was given a death sentence by an SEC Commission.

shopclues

Sandeep Aggarwal : Serial Entrepreneur, Angel Investor and the Founder of Shopclues

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The emerging Indian start-ups are bringing a great revolution in the entrepreneurial world. The young Indian minds and their untamed passion is creating history in the 21st-century economy. But, it isn’t always the young minds, because it is known that experience makes you wiser.

Sandeep Aggarwal is one such passion-driven entrepreneur who has successfully launched two start-ups, Shopclues and Droom, and now is one of the most influential men in the business world. The idea of Shopclues was pondering in his mind since 2010, but finally, he founded it in July 2011, followed by the launch of Droom in April 2014. The entire business was set up in Silicon Valley, and later, it shifted to India. Aggarwal faced a lot of difficulties and failed plans before he finally founded Shopclues.

Early Education

After passing school, Aggarwal pursued a degree in B.Com followed by a master’s from Indore. While doing his master’s, he also interned with Kotak Mahindra, Mumbai.

The First Step into the Professional World

Sandeep Aggarwal Founder Shopclues
Image Source: techcircle.in

Aggarwal first stepped into the professional world when he landed an internship in Kotak Mahindra, in 1995. The internship was in Mumbai, and it was his first chance to interact with intelligent minds around him and learn from them. He was perfectly groomed in this duration of his internship on how to deal with people and work at a professional level. He realized that most of us might have proper skills and knowledge, but only a few knew how to expose it professionally. Aggarwal, in one of its interviews, said that this internship also helped him strengthen his analytical skills and strategic thinking, apart from business communication and personality development.

Life before Shopclues happened

After completing his master’s degree, Aggarwal worked in the field of investment banking. While working in it, something changed his mind, and he decided to move to the US. He joined the Washington University, St. Louis, USA to pursue an MBA degree, and after receiving the degree, he worked for two different companies. After leaving these jobs, he joined Wallstreet and served eight years as an internet analyst, where he was given research covers on companies like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Yahoo! etc. Aggarwal is also a chartered member of TiE Silicon Valley.

While Aggarwal was still working as an internet analyst, in 2010, he visited India quite a few times to launch research coverage for MakeMyTrip. It was the time when the idea of launching an online marketplace clicked in his mind. He started planning about his business with a website called DealsClues.com, but finally, he settled with Shopclues.com, in 2010 and established this marketplace in Silicon Valley.

Founding of Shopclues.com

With Radhika Ghai Aggarwal (Sandeep Aggarwal’s wife), Mrinal Chatterjee and Sanjay Sethi, he started his new business in Delaware. By September 2011, the team moved to India and permanently settled in Gurgaon. At the very beginning of Shopclues, Aggarwal raised $1.95 million from his social circle.

In 26th January 2012, the public beta version of Shopclues was released, and by next month, the team size expanded to 25 from only 3-4 members. The Alexa ranking dropped from 14,000 at the beginning of the year to 200 only in August of the same year. The company started making a jaw-dropping profit with more than 2 million monthly visitors.

In January 2013, Shopclues has ranked as the fifth largest e-commerce companies in India, and the Alexa ranking dropped to 90. The business was progressing swiftly, until, July 2013, when he found legal charges filed against him for the time he worked as an internet analyst in Wallstreet. Aggarwal said that it was a time of sheer crisis in his life, and it almost took a year or so for him to get back on track. He didn’t have any choice other than avoiding the press and any other formal role in Shopclues. His family suffered, too. But today, Shopclues, his first company is worth $1.1 billion, and it is one of the largest online stores to serve in India.

Droom

Aggarwal founded Droom in April 2014, and it was the first-ever online platform for selling and buying automobiles (used and new) and services related to the same. Droom has a very strong founding team with more than 75 years of experience in technology. It was only after a year of its founding that Droom raised $16 million in Series A funding led by Lightbox.

Even today, it is India’s most trusted platform for automobiles.

The emotional outburst

In 2017, Aggarwal was in the spotlight for posting about a private matter in social media which was concerning his wife, Sanjay Sethi and Shopclues. An emotional outburst in social media is often not considered as a very clever judgment especially for business tycoons like Aggarwal. But, he said it was a very fragile moment for him and it was definitely a mistake to attract negative attention. Though he went through an emotional turmoil, the companies didn’t suffer any such loss but his personal life is still a very big question mark.

discord

Jason Citron : A Video Game Lover and the Founder of the Digital Distribution Platform Discord

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The video game industry is vast and is growing even more through online gaming and live game streaming. Over a decade ago, people could only play games on the desktops or gaming consoles. But now, they can play games online with other gamers as well. While playing, they can even talk to each other in real-time. This is called the real evolution of technology. Earlier, the gamers made the use of other expensive chat apps, like TeamSpeak, Mumble, and Ventrilo to communicate through chat at the time, they played games. But soon, they got their hands on more convenient and a lighter platform, i.e. Discord.

Discord is a VoIP application that Jason Citron, an American developer and entrepreneur, developed for the video gaming community. With Discord, the gamers are capable of sending and receiving texts, images, videos and communicate, while playing a game using the internet in real-time.

Early Life

Jason Citron, the founder and CEO of Discord, had always been a video game lover. His father, and his grandfather, both were businessmen. His first encounter with video games was through one of his childhood friends, who introduced him to NES (Nintendo Entertainment System). Later, when in middle school, in Florida, he opted for computers as one of his subjects in school. One of his friends at school was good at fundamentals of QBASIC and taught him the basics of programming.

Jason Citron
Image Source: vox.com

Inspired by his father, he also aspired to be an entrepreneur. By the time he was 13, he had learned a lot about computers and started teaching the basics of computers to people older than him and charged them a small amount of fee. When he was sixteen, he started part-time freelancing and wrote codes for different companies.

Since, he had always been into gaming and coding, after completing his graduation from the Full Sail University in Florida, he started working for a game company, where he worked on a gaming console in San Rafael. Meanwhile, he moved to a new apartment where he lived with the students of the University of California, Berkeley, where he got to meet Rohan Relan. Rohan’s uncle, Peter, was the owner of an incubator called YouWeb that supported mobile and gaming-focused businesses.

Building Aurora Feint; The First Startup

As Citron was into starting his own business, he met Peter and joined his company as one of the developers. At the incubator, he started working on a new iPhone game and built a company named Aurora Feint along with a fellow developer Danielle Cassley.

With the launch of the iPhone in 2007, Jason Citron got the opportunity to build new games that would work with the small screens. He focussed on creating games based on RPG and puzzles. The company launched the first version of Aurora Feint for free to use for iOS during the Christmas in 2008. The game was a success but was not making any revenues. Citron was looking for a better business model but had no clue how to work with newly built iPhones.

After just a few months the game reached one million people, but still, there was nothing that would pay back Citron and his company.

Founding OpenFeint

One day, while discussing with the YouWeb Owner Peter, Citron realised that the iPhone did not have Xbox live in it, but their Aurora Feint 2 did have a similar feature. It was the kind of first asynchronous MMOG (massively multiplayer online game). So they decided to build a separate SDK that other platform could integrate and use.

In February 2009, Citron launched the beta version of the software at TechCrunch, where he got to showcase it in front of hundreds of developers. This way, the software also got hundreds of signups, and thus, he was able to raise the money to produce the next version of the product. The software was free, but the company monetize the sale through revenue sharing, mobile storefronts, and game features.

The company carried out its first round of funding at the end of 2009, which was led by DeNA in Japan and raised $6 million. In the second round of funding, the company raised $5 million. By 2010, the company had more than 10 million users registered on the network. In October 2010, Intel Capital also invested a $3 million in the company. The next year, Japanese company GREE, Inc. acquired OpenFeint for a whopping amount of US$104 million.

The Journey from Hammer and Chisel to Discord

After selling the company, Jason Citron started another startup named Hammer and Chisel, a game development company, that launched its first game named Fates Forever, in 2014. Citron tried to launch the game as the Multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA), but due to the lack of good communication methods, it could not be commercially successful. This led Cistron to develop a new chat service, that would help people to chat in real-time while playing video games online.

Citron was able to get a sufficient amount of funding from YouWeb, Benchmark capital and Tencent for the development. Finally, he launched the first version of the product in May 2015, with the name Discord. Soon, the platform was famous and was used by the esports, LAN tournament gamers, and by the Twitch.tv streamers. In January 2016, the company received an investment of worth $20 million. In the same year, the growth rate for the software had reached a million users per month. By the end of the year, the software had registered 25 million users worldwide, and in December 2017, it recognised a total 90 million users, subscribed to the platform and raised $50 million by December.

By the end of 2018, the company valued at $2 billion and raised an additional $150 million, in a round of funding, led by Greenoaks Capital. In May 2019, the company announced that it has more than 250 million users across the world, who use the software.

The reason behind the success of Discord has been the consistent hard work of Jason Citron, and the skills, as an entrepreneur he possessed in his genes.

Porsche

Ferdinand Porsche : The Legendary German Engineer who Founded Porsche

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Being born into a family of a plumbing business, Ferdinand Porsche was also expected to adopt the same profession. But, his interest resided somewhere else. He was intrigued by electricity, designing and machinery. He carved a deep niche for mechanical work, and his passion changed his life entirely. He started from serving as a chauffeur to be known as the Great German Engineer.

A Sneak Peek to Porsche’s Life

Porsche was born into a German family on 3 September 1865, in Liberec (now a part of the Czech Republic). He was an automotive engineer and probably the best of his time. Before he founded his own company, he worked for many influential people designing the Lohner-Porsche, Volkswagen-Beetle and many other intimidating cars. He also received the Car Engineer of the Century award in 1999, 48 years after he passed away. He played a major role in World War II and was a member of the Nazi Party.

Early Life and Career

Porsche was the third child in his family, and his father, Anton Porsche ran a plumbing business. Though he grew a very strong interest in the mechanical aspect of engineering, he didn’t devote his entire time into experimenting with different equipment. He helped his father out in the workshop during the daytime and went to Imperial Technical School during the nights. After he finished his school and by the time he was 18, he got a job in Bela Egger and Co., an electrical company in Vienna. During his time in this company, he built his first electric hub motor.

Ferdinand Porsche
Image Source: automotivehalloffame.org

In 1897, he started working for Jacob Lohner and Co. in their newly established Electric Car Company. The first design of the company was Egger-Lohner vehicle or Porsche P1, a carriage-like car. In 1900, the modified version of this vehicle (from two wheels to four wheels) was displayed in the Paris World Exhibition, and this masterpiece received much appreciation. In 1901, Porsche designed Lohner-Porsche, the first model of hybrid electric vehicle (HEV). Porsche also upgraded his existing vehicles with many engines from Daimler and Panhard, breaking many speed records.

In 1905, he was awarded the Potting prize for being Austria’s most outstanding automotive engineer. By this time, he gradually got involved in the military services served as a chauffeur to the then crowned prince of Austria.

Working for the Major Automobile Companies

In 1906, Porsche was hired by Austro Daimler as the chief designer. In 1910, Daimler won the Prinz-Heinrich Fahrt, an automobile contest. The Austro-Daimler car for which they won the contest was solely designed by Porsche. He also designed many race cars, aircraft engines, trolley-buses and many other vehicles using HEV technology during his time at Austro-Daimler. In 1916, Porsche became the Managing Director, and in the same year, he received the honorary doctorate from Vienna University of Technology. In 1923, he left the company due to differences in future perception of the company’s development.

Soon after he left Austro-Daimler, he was hired as a Technical Director in Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft. For his excellent work in this company, he received another honorary doctorate from Stuttgart Technical University. Again in 1929, Porsche left the merged company, Daimler-Benz, as his ideas for developing a light-weight Mercedes Benz was not accepted by the company’s board.

He started working for another company, but due to the Great Depression, his engineering skills had become almost needless to the world.

Founding Porsche

Though the economic condition dried up during the 1930s, Porsche made his way to establishing his own company. In April 1931, Porsche built his own consulting firm (for vehicles and engines) in Stuttgart with the financial support of Anton Piech and Adolf Rosenberger.

He started taking up big projects from reputed companies, but he also worked on his own designs. He managed to impress some companies that could sponsor his own projects, but eventually, all of them lost interest due to some of the other reasons. Also, the economic condition of that period wasn’t in favour of any newly born business.

In the early 1930s, Hitler wanted every citizen of his nation to own a car, which led to the hiring of Porsche for this project, the people’s car (Volkswagen). Soon, he got involved in many other Nazi projects. The first two prototypes of Volkswagen were released by 1935, and by the next three-four years, a lot of redesigning and pre-production took place.

In the meantime, a lawsuit was filed against Porsche by a Czech company, claiming breach of the company’s patent. The matter was finally resolved in 1961, ten years after Porsche’s death.

Life after World War II

The company went through a severe loss during the war, but he was ordered to continue with the Volkswagen designs. But, before the project could restart, he was captured by French authorities as a war criminal.

Ferry Porsche, Porsche’s son tried to run the business while he was in prison. He was finally got released on 5th August 1947, and in the meantime, Ferry designed Porsche 356, the first car to have the family name. Ferry rebuilt the business once again and made huge profits.

While the entire family returned to Stuttgart to re-establish their business, Porsche died in 30th January 1951 due to a stroke.

Capital One logo

Richard Dana Fairbank : The Founder of One of the Largest Banks in the U.S.

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One of the most influential and financially predominant individual with quality of great leadership is what defines Richard Dana Fairbank. Banking business can make a profit like a spreading wildfire, and that is how Fairbank turned the wheel of his life.

Richard Fairbank, a billionaire in addition to the successful American businessmen, is the founder and owner of the bank holding company, Capital One Financial Corporation. He founded the company in 1994, along with Nigel Morris, an English businessman. Fairbank’s new strategies for credit models changed the entire face of the banking industry, thus, entering into a new era of entrepreneurship.

Education

Fairbank was born in 18th September 1950. In 1972, he graduated from Stanford University with a bachelor’s degree in economics. Later, in 1981, he completed his MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business. Almost 12 years after founding Capital One, he received an award on excellent leadership from his university.

Career Before Capital One Happened

Before founding Capital One, Fairbank worked in a few different companies. He worked as a partner and consultant in Strategic Planning Associates (1985-1990), followed by the head of the credit card unit in Signet-Banking Corporation (1990-1994).

Richard Dana Fairbank
Image Source: knownetworth.com

It was in the 1980s when Fairbank met Morris in a consulting firm, their mutual workplace. Since then, the idea of implementing new technologies to amend credit card plans hovered over their minds. Both Fairbank and Morris wanted to change the entire idea of charging an annual fee for credit cards holders, replacing it with different schemes for a different segment of the population. This is where they needed the contribution of information technology to manipulate data of consumers and their purchase list.

With the help of data management software, they were able to divide the entire population of credit card users into different categories, followed by offering them different plans and offers. They pitched Oracle Corporation for the job of database management, and they agreed to the new strategy of the company. It was due to this credit card model, both of them got hired by Signet-Banking Corp, in 1990.

Soon after the two economists joined Signet, the bank offered around three hundred different credit plans to its customers, charging the interest rate according to the divided categories. This was a breakthrough for both of them, but this was just the beginning. Fairbank along with Morris also developed a new strategy of transferring money from one credit card to another, with a relatively much lower rate of interest. This attracted quite a robust number of new customers, hiking the profit to an unexpected level.

And, in 27th July 1994, Signet announced the credit card division split-off, renaming it as Capital One. Richard Dana Fairbank was made the CEO of the company, and currently, it is the seventh-largest U.S commercial bank by assets.

The success of Capital One

The success of Capital One became so enormous that it superseded the sale and profit of Signet, its parent company. Fairbank made Capital One look like a massive credit card business in partnership with a bank rather than a spun-off segment of a banking business.

By 1995, Capital One completely became an independent business whereas Signet came under the acquisition of First Union Corporation. Within a single year of its establishment, Capital One made a 25% increase in the net income of the company, making it to the list of top 10 credit card issuers in the U.S.

Capital One is an ideal banking company, where excellent business models are backed up by strong database manipulating software. The company first analyses the needs of a customer and then build credit card plans accordingly.

After many years of successful business, during early 2000, people started questioning about the algorithms used by Capital One to access information about customers, and hence, the stock prices dropped. Though ultimately nothing risky was found in the algorithm, Fairbank and Morris saw it as a future threat to the company and decided to form an executive board to make decisions for the company.

Achievements of Fairbank

Richard Dana Fairbank was honoured with the award of Washingtonian’s “Business Leader of the Year” and Credit Card Management’s “Entrepreneur of the Year”. He is also listed among the top ten Bank CEOs, who became a billionaire and have achieved many other things.

Personal Life

Fairbank is married to Chris Fairbank, and they have eight children. They are settled in Virginia.