Current in Entrepreneurship Blog

In the year 2007, Brian Acton, a seasoned software developer with nine years at Yahoo, took a leap of faith and left his job to explore South America. Upon his return, he set his sights on a position at Twitter (now X). However, his application met with rejection. Undeterred, he turned to Facebook, only to face another closed door.

Rather than wallowing in disappointment, Acton chose a different path. He took to twitter to candidly share his 'failures' with the world.

Shortly after, Acton connected with Jan Koum, a fellow Yahoo alumnus who had recently been turned down by Facebook as well. Their encounter marked the inception of a groundbreaking idea.

In January 2009, Koum, armed with an iPhone and a vision, recognized the burgeoning potential of the seven-month-old App Store. Over a casual pizza and movie night with a friend named Alex Fishman, the two discussed Koum's brainchild—a status-sharing app that would keep friends and family in the loop about your activities, whether you were hitting the gym, grinding at work, or running low on battery.

The name? WhatsApp. A play on "What's up?", perfectly encapsulating the essence of a status-telling application. Koum wasted no time, incorporating WhatsApp Inc. on his birthday, February 24, 2009, in California. While Koum focused on the backend, he entrusted the development of the iPhone application to Igor Solomennikov, a coder he discovered on RentACoder.com.

WhatsApp's ascent was swift. When Apple introduced a push notifications service in June 2009, Koum updated WhatsApp, enabling users to receive alerts whenever a status was changed. The founders stumbled upon a revelation—users were not only updating their statuses but responding to the updates of others. Inadvertently, they had birthed a cost-free messaging service in a world dominated by pricey SMS.

With Acton and Koum volunteering their time, the primary expense was sending verification texts to users, ranging from 2 cents to 65 cents per SMS. To offset this, the founders introduced a nominal $1/year fee, attracting private investors. By early 2011, WhatsApp proudly ranked among the top 20 apps in the U.S. App Store.

In February 2013, with 200 million active users and a staff of 50, WhatsApp secured a $50 million investment from Sequoia Capitals, valuing the platform at $1.5 billion. Staying true to their principles, Acton pinned a handwritten reminder of WhatsApp's core values in his office, emphasizing a commitment to user privacy and minimal data collection.

In February 2014, Facebook acquired WhatsApp for an astonishing $19 billion, a testament to the platform's meteoric rise with over 600 million users. This acquisition remains one of the largest tech deals in history, leaving many astounded by WhatsApp's staggering valuation.

The WhatsApp saga is a timeless reminder that setbacks and failures are not the end of the road. Embracing setbacks, learning from them, and pushing forward can lead to extraordinary success. Acton and Koum's journey serves as a beacon for those pursuing their passions, demonstrating that, even if the outcome isn't as anticipated, the pursuit itself can yield a fulfilling and transformative experience.