Kevin Systrom, Instagram, 15 months,
1 billion euros

Kevin Systrom is not really the most famous startupper. He is almost a normal guy, he did not make too much headlines and most people would not even recognize him in the street. Yet he has developed an application that everyone knows: Instagram . The startup boasts over a billion users, 75% of whom are outside the United States. Let’s go back to Kevin Systrom: a normal guy. Well, almost … First of all, because he was born into a family of entrepreneurs – his mother was an accomplished business woman. Then because he was studying at Stanford from which he graduated with a bachelor’s degree. Before Instagram At Stanford precisely, the young Kevin did not study computers but economics. He did spent a semester in Florence to learn photography. His Italian teacher show him the Holga camera that will become the icon of the brand. But in his spare time, he learns how to program and code small programs. Smart student at Stanford, Mark Zuckerberg was trying to recruit him to work at Facebook. But Kevin Systrom preferred to finish his studies. Finally, he was recruited in 2005 as a trainee in a company called Odeo. Nobody knows this startup now… except that it is the ancestor of Twitter ! There he met Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter, with whom he develops some applications. After graduation, he finally worked at Google . Not in the IT development department but in the marketing department on products like Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Spreadsheets. After 2 years in marketing, he joined Google’s mergers and acquisitions department. Eventually, Kevin Systrom resigned from Google and joined a startup launched by former search engine developers. There he focuses on code learning and programs check-ins mechanisms and small games. But on his free time, the young startupper was developing Burbn . Burbn is an application built in HTML5 to search for places to go out and post pictures of these evenings. In March 2010, Kevin Systrom participated in Hunch to pitch his startup. He convinced Andreessen Horowitz to invest $ 500K in his project . These funds allow him to quit his job at Google and devote himself completely to his project with his friend Mike Krieger. They decided to focus on photography only, because it was Burbn’s favorite feature. They find the name “Instagram”, short for “Instant Camera” and “Telegram”. The story of Instagram In October 2010, Kevin Systrom added the app to the Apple App Store. And BOOM ! That’s the explosion. The application is downloaded 25000 times from the first days. Within a week, Instagram passes the 100,000 users. Remember that at that time, the cameras of the mobilephones were still of poor quality. And the 2 startuppers targeted Iphone 4 users who will certainly be happy to apply a filter on their photos to improve them. Kevin Systrom continues to work on the product while remaining focused on the user experience. And it works: the number of users grows very regularly. 15 months later, in April 2012, Instagram is finally bought by Facebook for $ 1 billion. No doubt you can hardly say no to one billion dollars. Kevin Systrom pocketed $ 400 million, his partner Mike Krieger netted $ 100 million in his pocket. Another $ 100M was distributed among the 13 employees of the startup. The rest goes to the funds that believed early in the star company. In 15 months of operation, it’s a good deal. But what ultimately pleased the founders is the opportunity left by Facebook to run the business independently. Kevin Systrom is still CEO of Instagram. Since the purchase by Facebook, Instagram has developed new features. In particular the filters, the geotag of the photos, the timelapse and of course the live videos! In August 2018, Instagram strives to secure its platform and allows everyone to have their profile certified. A precious grail reserved for well-know influencers before.

JACK MA AND THE CAVE OF ALIBABA: THE CHINESE STARTUPPER

Jack Ma, at the Startuppers Club, we just love Him! We even hope he makes a little trip to the Startuppers Club! His biography shows him brilliant in business, amusing and humble, and in addition he is a philanthropist! He could motivate a regiment of startuppers in panic! Just listening to a video of him gives you motivation for the next month! And if his speeches don’t do anything to you, look for the videos in which this billionaire sings the King Lion disguised as a punk or dances like Mickael Jackson… During a well-known episode from the beginning of his life, Jack MA applied for a police job but was the only one rejected out of five. Then he applied to KFC but was the only one rejected again out of 24. Finally, Ma Yun applied 10 times at Harvard Business School and was rejected 10 times. He often says, he has been so rejected that he is no longer afraid of it! Finally here are the 2 tips of Jack Ma to succeed in creating successful startups: 1 ° Build a team of startuppers ready to give everything for the project and 2 ° Always be positive! Here are the big steps in his entrepreneurial history. 1995: China Pages in the USA By the time Xavier Niel invested in WorldNet in France, Jack Ma was creating his first company in the USA. Originally arrived with a Chinese delegation as an interpreter, following his degree in English, he discovers the Internet and understands the opportunity that this represents. Realizing that there is little information about China on the US Web, he created the site China Pages and is quickly contacted by investors and future customers. For 3 years, he creates sites with his wife and a friend. This company earned around $ 800K (5 million Yuan). 1999: Alibaba, the B-to-B marketplace Back in China, he raised some funds (500KYuans) and with a group of 18 friends he founded Alibaba in his apartment. He pitched very determinedly the plan to his troops in a video that is worth the detour: Original Pitch. In October 1999 and in January 2000, Alibaba twice raised $ 25 millions in venture capital investment. These investments were made to modernize the Chinese e-commerce market and to open the international market to Chinese SMEs. NB : The name was chosen because it was known to everyone. In an international and global environment, this was very important for Ma. He also wanted a name in A, to be ranked first! 2003: Taobao, the Chinese C-to-C marketplace Small historical reminder first: Developing very strong in the US, Ebay bought a Chinese competitor Eachnet for $ 180 million to expand its business in China. Jack Ma was also offered to be bought by Ebay, but he refused. After creating a site focused on business-to-business exchanges, Jack Ma decided to develop C2C or at least B2C , and created Taobao ! To meet the competition, he founded Taobao, which is now one of the top 10 most visited sites in China. 2004: Alipay, the payment system of the group Backed by Taobao, the integrated online payment solution has become the preferred mean of payment in China, with 60% of the total volume. But since 2018, it’s possible to pay via Alipay even in France, especially at Galeries Lafayette or Sephora. Ant Financial, parent company of the application, has signed a partnership with the manufacturer of payment terminals Ingenico, which will give access to many stores in France. The process is so simple : The seller scans the QR code on the customer’s phone and the payment is done! 2010: AliExpress, the international C-to-C marketplace If there is an Alibaba cave, it’s AliExpress! The goal of AliExpress is to translate Taobao’s success internationally and compete with Amazon and Ebay Worldwide. The site connects Chinese companies with international consumers. The website has grown strongly for electronic components and fashion accessories produced in China at low cost. 2010: Yunfeng Capital Headquartered in Hong Kong and Shanghai, the investment fund led by Jack Ma has strong ambitions. In 2011, less than a year after its creation, the fund raised $ 1.5 billion to invest in Internet startups but also in the media and health sectors. Yunfeng Capital manages about $ 10 billion currently. The fund invested in the Chinese version of Groupon (Gaopeng) in 2011 alongside Tencent. Also Jack Ma invested in the smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi in 2014. Finally the fund supports the Formula E Grand Prix in China.