Courtesy of Dave Cynkin
Skype is a low cost online peer-2-peer VoIP phone service used by millions across the globe. The now common household name has grown so successfully over the past several years that it has been embraced by almost all of the internet community. Behind every great success as we all know one is a great entrepreneur. That’s why this week in the spotlight we take a look at entrepreneur Niklas Zennstrom who created Skype. We’ll look at just how he did it and highlight what lessons any upcoming entrepreneur can learn.
Summary:
Name: Niklas Zennstrom
Age: 44
Location: Luxembourg
Claim to fame: Skype (Online peer to peer VoIP telephone network)
Initial cost: unknown
How He Did It:
Niklas Zennstrom was born and raised in Sweden where he also attended college. He obtained a degree in Business Administration and Engineering Physics. He started his career working for a European telecommunication provider called Tele2. He went onto hold several business roles at various companies following that first job. In 2001, Zennstrom broke from the traditional corporate job to found Kazaa, which was the popular peer-2-peer file sharing application that made headlines often through the early 2000s. In 2003, Zennstrom would go onto develop and co-found the now very popular Skype product and service. Skype proved to be a very successful VoIP service breaking new ground for many of its customers in the telecommunications space. In 2005, eBay stepped in and bought the quickly growing Skype service from Niklas for roughly $2.6 billion. Zennstrom remained as Skype CEO until 2007 when he left the company to pursue other interests. He has since launched a new music video service known as Joost.
Lessons Learned:
- It’s a great strategy to use the knowledge and skill sets you have to create something new (Zennstrom used his background in telecom to launch multiple companies and products around his area of expertise).
- Don’t be afraid to explore the idea of multiple start-ups (Zennstrom launched a handful of different start-ups, which all did respectfully well – just be sure to focus on one at a time).
- Identify a decent size group of people with a need and then leverage the technology around you to develop a product to solve that particular group’s problem.
- Don’t expect success to come overnight. Stick with it if it has potential (Zennstrom worked several years at different jobs before launching his first start-up and even then it took a decent amount of time to catch on).
Did you miss last weeks spotlight? Check it out here: The Entrepreneur Spotlight: Reed Hastings of Netflix.com
Be on the lookout for our next entrepreneur spotlight article in this ongoing series. In the meantime, be sure to leave a comment and let me know what you think about the success of this week’s entrepreneur. Also, please let me know if you have an entrepreneur you would like to see featured here in the weeks to come.
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