Starting a business is more than just coming up with an innovative idea, it requires you to go through endless hustling, tons of dead ends, and never-ending disappointments. But someone who can raise himself from all the hardships of entrepreneurship through passion and dedication is a true entrepreneur.
And today with this article, we are going to introduce you to 5 such entrepreneurs behind the most successful startups in the world. The inspirational stories of these startups are definitely worth acknowledging by the world.
Let’s check out below the business journey of the 5 most successful startups in the world and how much they are worth now:
1. Instagram
Instagram has established its place as the most popular social media platform in the world with billions of users. But before this, it was just an application created by two guys in 8 weeks of work. Kevin Systrom was the man with the idea, he was a Stanford graduate who was working with Google’s Gmail.
Alongside he was also focusing on a photo-sharing application that lets you mention your location and dubbed it Burbn. Later he met Mike Krieger who joined Kevin in his startup and they both worked on the idea as co-founders. After some time, Burbn was renamed Instagram.
Current Worth: $102 Billion
2. Facebook
The infamous entrepreneur Mark Zuckerberg is known for his social media application Facebook. As a student studying in Harvard at 19 years of age, Mark was always curious and excitement about new ideas and wanted to bring them to reality.
He launched an application for internal communications for students of Harvard. But the innovativeness of Facebook was much appreciated beyond his university as well. Soon, students from other universities started using the app and that’s how it expanded its user base.
In 2004, Facebook received its first funding from Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal when they moved their operations to California.
Current Worth: $280 Billion
3. Snapchat
Snapchat’s story is about three guys Bobby Murphy, Evan Spiegel, and Reggie Brown. One day Reggie casually mentioned, “I wish the pictures that I am sending this girl would disappear.” Soon that idea was dubbed as a million-dollar idea by Evan Spiegel and that’s how they initiated their startup and named it Picaboo.
After some time, there was a clash between the co-founders, in which both Evan and Bobby asked Reggie Brown to leave. After kicking him out, they changed its name to Snapchat.
Current Worth: $31 Billion
4. Uber
One day after attending a conference in Paris, Garrett Camp and Travis Kalanick were complaining about how difficult it can be to find a cab. After this conversation, they were already brainstorming ideas for their startup and that’s how Uber was started.
Current Worth: $78 Billion
5. Whatsapp
Whatsapp is a story about two guys Brian Acton and Jan Koum, who were working at Yahoo together and were frustrated with the number of ads on each Yahoo page. They soon quit Yahoo to brainstorm their own ideas and took a year off. They were also rejected by Facebook.
After facing it all, they finally started an application and named it Whatsapp in the year 2009. The clear purpose behind starting Whatsapp was to build an ad-free platform for the users.
Current Worth: $19 billion
Concluding Thoughts
These startup journeys are proof that there’s no such thing as lack of opportunity or ecosystem. If you have the right passion and determination, nothing can stop you. You are just one idea away from a revolution.