story of and impact to estonian startup scene. slide 2 the global communications tool that billions...
TRANSCRIPT
Slide 2
The global communications toolthat billions of people rely on every day
for sharing experiences, from living room to boardroom
40PERCENTOf the total of all global International PSTN and Skype calling minutes
60+
MILLIONUsers online at peak times
360MILLIONUsers at 100 minutes per month
50PERCENTOf Skype Calls & Video
2BILLIONMinutes of voice and video in one day
Competition WeChat, QQ,
Whazzup, Viber,
Snapchat,
Facebook, Gtalk,
Facetime, ooVoo,
Jitsi, VoxOx,
goober, Ekiga,
etc
Telecoms on one side
and new startups with
established internet
companies on the other
side have kept Skype
sharp on its mission
Foreigners Female
Microsoft
Skype
MaleEstonians
Tallinn & Tartu
Prague
Stockholm
LuxemburgLondon Moscow
TokyoNew YorkPalo Alto
Singapore
Hong Kong
Redmond
Tony Bates as
CEO
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
Today
0
10
20
30
40
50
60TIMELINE
eBay buys Skypefor 2.6B $
Silverlakebuys
Skype 2.75B $
MS buys Skypefor 8.5B $
skype.com registered
Milli
ons
of u
sers
onl
ine
Michael Van
Swaaij as CEO
Josh Silverman as CEO
Dan Berg as CTO
Mark Gillett as
CTO
Skype prepares for IPO
Values Honest
Fast
Disruptive
Make mistakes
User centric
Fun
Every company has
values to assist
everyone in decision
making and making the
whole bigger then the
sum of parts ?
Skype cultural elements
We are product engineering led
We are truly global
We solve for a dynamic world(and convert to ideas to users
quickly)
We put users at the heart of our
decision making
Missed opportunities
Still one revenue stream
Mobile penetration
Social network explosion
Developer ecosystem
Beginnings
Most hired through networks
Hire attitude, skills can be learned
No bullshit mgmt style
Work hard play hard
Being disruptive unites
Culture and principlesWe fly so you don’t have to
I don’t know if I am good enough to be here
We can’t screw this up, we can’t let each other down
Fake it until you make it
Eat your own dogfood
Skype is the best thing that can happen to you professionally
Culture and principles
We are working with smartest people
We are working in best environment possible
Quality is built in
You are on the bus or off the bus
You might not like how things are but you love Skype
First Decade of #SkypeMafiaNumber of people on the graph: 110 Number of ex-Skype startup founders: 54 Number of Skype-spawned startups: 50 Number of professional investors on the graph: 16 Number of individual angel investors: 31 Number of investments captured: 136
Main takeaways from Skype storyIts possible from here
Networks matter
Success lies in an ability to work across timezones and cultures
Hiring right people is everything
Not good enough – I have seen what good looks like
We were lucky and its probably will never repeat exactly like this