Skype’s founder now investing in venture capital

Niklas Zennstrom is a serial entrepreneur, which helped found online chat service Skype. He also created Peer-to –peer file-sharing website Kazaa in 2001. After selling Skype to eBay for $2.6 billion in 2005, Zennstrom and co-founder Janus Friis launched Joost, an online video service. Zennstrom is now involved on making venture capital investments in the technology space through his new firm Atomico.

Why do you think Skype succeeded, where so many other online chat services failed?

The team was very focused to make Skype's core product the global standard — “we had the ambition to become a global player.” Since previous VOIP solutions did not work well at all, we identified two major problems: technology and user experience. We found that Peer-to-peer technology was the solution to the technology problem. We had the best peer-to-peer technology experience in the world from Kazaa.

“We had perfect timing; we launched Skype for a broadband world, so we utilized high definition audio before anyone else… We went after a large market with a transformational business model, so there was a big opportunity.”

With VC Atomico we are looking for some precise characteristics in companies:

• entrepreneurs with global ambitions to become category winners,

• unique transformational products or business models,

• large markets in transition and finally the right timing.

What's the biggest mistake you made as an entrepreneur and what did you learn from it?

I try to move on when I make a mistake. I guess a major mistake I did was not to start my own company earlier. I spent nine years working for others before starting Kazaa in 2000.

What's the best investment you ever made?

That must have been taking my education seriously.

Source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/42892302?__source=stocktracker&par=stocktracker

Louis Rhéaume
Infocom Intelligence
louis@infocomintelligence.com
Twitter: @InfocomAnalysis