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Day 4 - Startup Surprise From a Simple Status App to a $19 Billion Acquisition: The WhatsApp Story When we think of billion-dollar startups, we often imagine a revolutionary idea backed by big investors from day one. But WhatsApp's journey was different; it started from frustration, necessity, and a desire to stay connected. In 2009, Jan Koum, an immigrant from Ukraine, was living in California. Having experienced life without running water and the pain of poor communication systems, he knew what it felt like to not afford a phone call to family overseas. He wasnโt aiming to build a tech unicorn; he simply wanted to let people know his availability without making calls or sending texts. He built an app called WhatsApp (as in โWhatโs up?โ) that initially allowed users to set a simple โstatus messageโ like โbusyโ or โbattery lowโ. It didnโt even support messaging at first; it was just a status update platform. However, users began changing their statuses constantly, treating it as a form of communication. Jan and his co-founder Brian Acton observed this behaviour and saw an opportunity. They pivoted, adding messaging and notifications to the app. More people joined every day, particularly those who wanted to avoid expensive SMS charges. WhatsApp grew quietly, focusing on speed, privacy, and simplicity, not virality or monetization. The founders were notably anti-ads, operating with the mantra: โNo ads, no games, no gimmicks.โ By 2013, WhatsApp was handling 27 billion messages per day. By 2014, it boasted over 450 million monthly users. In February 2014, Facebook acquired WhatsApp for $19 billionโthe largest acquisition in Facebook's history, all stemming from a simple desire to show one's status. ๐ก The Lesson? Sometimes, success isn't about launching a flashy product, but about solving a personal pain and listening to how users actually utilise your product. WhatsApp was born from a need to stay in touch and evolved into the worldโs most popular messaging app.
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WhatsApp, a name that has become synonymous with instant messaging and voice-over-IP services, was founded in 2009 by Jan Koum and Brian Acton, two individuals who had previously worked at Yahoo. The idea for WhatsApp was born out of a desire to crea
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โNo Ads. No Games. No Gimmicks.โ That was the founding promise of WhatsApp. When Jan Koum and Brian Acton built WhatsApp, they were obsessed with simplicity and user trust. Acton even scrawled the motto on a piece of paper and gave it to Koum as a
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WhatsApp Is Losing Its Charm It feels like every update these days adds another layer of clutter to WhatsApp. From shopping catalogs to channels to communities, the once simple, clean messaging app is becoming bloated with features many users never
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WhatsApp founder Jan Koum explains why he charged $1 for the product to intentionally slow growth Sam Altman recalls: โI remember in 2011, people would say WhatsApp is never going to work because they charge a dollar and itโs a viral app and thatโs
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The Story of Signal! So, Signal was started by Moxie Marlinspike, a cryptographer and hacker, in 2010. He believed digital communication was dangerously unprotected, making it easy for governments, corporations, and hackers to spy on messages. Th
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Drew Houston: The Man Who Turned a Forgotten USB into a $10 Billion Idea ๐ฅ Ever lost an important file because you forgot your USB drive? Thatโs exactly what happened to Drew Houston, and instead of just getting frustrated he built Dropbox, a bil
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Google tried to buy this zero-revenue startup for $1 Billion. Then Mark Zuckerberg countered with a $19 BILLION offer & everyone called him insane. Now, that "startup" is used by 2 Billion people. How Mark Zuckerburg quietly made the best tech inv
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