What Entrepreneurs Can Learn From WhatsApps $19 Billion Acquisition

In this article, I discuss what entrepreneurs can learn from WhatsApps $19 billion acquisition. There are a lot of valuable lessons that can be learned from this massive acquisition made by Facebook.

 

The BIG news from yesterday has been the insane fact that Facebook purchased WhatsApp for $19 billion. Yeah, you heard that right. That’s 19 Instagrams and Instagram was a whole lot of money on its own.

 

 

There are a lot of factors that specifically made WhatsApp so successful. Not only that, but entrepreneurs can learn so much from the founders and the success of their startup.

 

 

In this article, I share what entrepreneurs can learn from WhatsApps $19 billion acquisition:

 

 

Rejection Is The Best Motivation

 

One of the co-founders Jan Koum applied for jobs at Facebook & Twitter. Believe it or not, both of these companies rejected him. Instead of paying him a 6 figure salary, they are buying him out for 11 figures.

 

 

As an entrepreneur, you have to take rejection as a positive. Use that to fuel you towards your goals and successes. Jan could have easily gave up when these companies rejected him, but he decided to keep pushing forward.

 

 

He was determined to show the world that he did have value. As you can see, he created one of the largest messaging platforms in the world that Facebook just paid massive amounts of money for.

 

 

Embrace The Struggle

 

Jan came to this country as a teenager as an immigrant with his family. His family wasn’t wealthy by any standards and he quickly learned the meaning of hard work. Entrepreneurs must learn to embrace the struggle.

 

 

Because Jan felt the lows of life, he had tremendous amount of determination to create a better future for himself. Life isn’t about playing strong hands, it’s about playing weak hands extremely well.

 

 

You Don’t Need Money To Market Your Startup

 

People constantly are under this belief that they need a large amount of money to get tons of visibility towards their startup. I have built my startups without spending any money on marketing and WhatsApp did just the same thing.

 

 

They have over 400 million active users, but they have not spent a single dollar to acquire these users. Instead, their money is used on hiring really good employees that can support their infrastructure.

 

 

If you’re able to think outside the box and come up with creative ideas of your own, you do NOT need money to market your business. Just remember, there’s always a better way to get something done.

 

 

Quality Trumps Quantity

 

You cannot build a startup focusing on acquiring as many users as you possibly can. That’s completely the wrong approach. You must create a product of quality that your users will love and engage with on a regular basis.

 

 

More than 70% of the 400 million active users would log on to WhatsApp every single day. That’s amazing engagement and a huge stream of recurring users that are using their application every single day.

 

 

Instagram did the same thing and got a massive payout for doing so. It’s not about revenue or making a ton of money. It’s about building a brilliant product that has a positive impact in the lives of your users.

 

 

Conclusion

 

In this article, I shared what entrepreneurs can learn from WhatsApps $19 billion acquisition by Facebook. What have you learned from this company?