What We Will See In The Future
Been reading around the web about the WhatsApp purchase by Facebook. WhatsApp had one investor, Sequoia. The VC only owned 20% of the company based on what I could find. That means 50 employees owned 80% of a $19B transaction.
Start a company or buy a lotto ticket? (answer, start a company)
It’s never good for your soul to count someone else’s money. But, money does send signals. What’s important to learn about WhatsApp is not how much money they made. It’s the strategy behind executing it. While everyone fought for market share in the United States, WhatsApp concentrated on India. That forced them into mobile platforms that dominated India-not iOS and Android initially. Interesting.
A company I am invested in is Brilliant. A lot of their users come from outside the United States. If you go there, they have a well developed social network of people from all over the world. They work together to solve problems. It’s really cool. If you have a person in your home that is a teen, turn them on to Brilliant.
So often, entrepreneurs focus on the US market because it’s so big. It’s familiar and easier to target. In the future, entrepreneurs will turn their eyes and focus on other markets. They have $19B reasons to do it. Africa and India have huge amounts of people, all with mobile phones. Those are potential customers. Especially if you are an app like WhatsApp that doesn’t have a revenue model built in.
How many pitches will VCs hear that say I am “WhatsApp for X”? How many times will pitches involve an international component now?
One thing is clear to me. When we think about innovation like cryptocurrency, we ought to think internationally in scope. If you are only thinking about the US, you are missing the entire point. Designing products for the US market is fruitless today because the opportunity costs don’t outweigh the convenience yet. But, when you think about other places on the earth, virtual currency is huge.
If your mission is to become a company with an international footprint, ignoring the use of cryptocurrency in your business model is suicidal. It’s not much today, but ten years from now it might be an integral part of your supply and consumer payment chain. Incumbent companies ought to pay close attention. Ones that are being created today that look like minnows will become whales that consume them.
WhatsApp was on the way to doing that with Facebook.
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The post What We Will See In The Future appeared first on Points and Figures.
Source: http://pointsandfigures.com/2014/02/20/will-see-future/
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