An Inside Look on Five of the Most Successful Startups That We See Today
Today’s world is filled with technological advancements that make our lives infinitely more convenient. To a certain degree, we owe this life of convenience to the startups that have come into play over the recent decades.
These startups extensively studied the market and found gaps to tackle and differentiate themselves from the competition. As a result, these companies have many business strategies that we can all learn from.
That being said, here are some of the most successful startups today. But first, let’s take a look at their humble beginnings and where their ideas stemmed from.
Nowadays, Instagram is part of the Facebook family. However, the company’s story began with the investments of two guys who developed an app within eight weeks. It was originally named Burbn, and as we know, it was an app that features note-sharing and location-aware photos.
Kevin Systrom was the first to develop the app while he was working at Google’s corporate development and Gmail. He shared the app with Mike Krieger, who was an early Burbn user. The two would officially establish the company and would later be rebranded as Instagram.
AirBnB
This next one is one of the best success stories in the history of startups. Back in 2007, Joe Gebbia and Brian Chesky, two designers who couldn’t even afford their rent on their San Francisco apartment, came up with a brilliant idea.
There was a designer’s conference within their area at that time, and the local hotels were fully booked. So, they made the investments to put up ads for three airbeds in their living room that people could rent. They also cooked breakfast for their guests.
Their first customers were two guys and a girl that spent $80 each for their services. After experiencing early success with their simple business model, they took in Nathan Blecharczyk, a former flat mate with a Computer Science degree, to develop their website and join the startup.
Uber
Founders Garrett Camp and Travis Kalanick came up with the initial concept of Uber, the ride-sharing app, after their trip for a conference in Paris. They had troubles hailing cabs, and they brainstormed how they could conveniently find cars at the right time and at the right place.
Co-founder Ben Silbermann grew up thinking that he would be following in his parents’ footsteps into a career in medicine. However, while he was studying for his degree at Yale University, he eventually realized that a doctor’s life wasn’t meant for him nor what he wanted.
After a failed app and working in Google, Silbermann then came up with another startup concept. In 2009, he enlisted the help of his friends, Paul Sciarra and Evan Sharp, to work on a website where people can show collections of the things they are interested in. It also featured an interactive pinboard where people can browse through different collections.
During the initial stages of Pinterest, Silbermann personally wrote to the first 7,000 users of the website, giving them his personal info, and even took the time to meet up with some of them.
Founders Brian Acton and Jan Koum were originally colleagues from Yahoo. The two were frustrated by the number of advertisements that can be found on any page. So, after they left Yahoo back in 2007, they took a year off before failing to make the cut to work at Facebook.
To their credit, despite the ups and downs, the two didn’t give up and soon launched an app of their own, WhatsApp. It carried a clear purpose of being ad-free while focusing on delivering a service of reliable and gimmickless service.