MMMM #14: Entrepreneurship & Economy

Thank you Amit for being open to sharing this with the world. Please feel free to like, comment, and share with your friends, family, and peers. Learn more about the Monday Morning Motivational Minute here.

I want to share a blog post from MW GBB Jason Roper, who [joined us] from a career at the Federal Reserve; and now supports our MW Government & Regulatory business.  He shares this blog post that guides us on the strength of our economy, our people, and one that grounds us in Trust.

Thanks for the great motivational read Jason.

Economists like Jason have also asked the question, how badly has coronavirus hurt the global economy? This remains to be seen, but as of now, amid a coronavirus shutdown that pushed 3.28 million people to file unemployment claims in one week.

Looking back, global workers took a hard hit after the 2008 recession, but a wave of new startups emerged from the financial downturn.  Many are expecting the world to be forever changed after the pandemic, which also may mean more opportunities for entrepreneurs with ideas for tools and services that can help people adapt to new trends.

The founders of some of today’s most major companies did exactly that between 2008 and 2010. I am so eager to see what comes out of this time of turmoil, who will be the next unicorns, and the next set of world changers.

Looking back on history we can see some exceptional rays of optimism and promise.  Hope that this inspires you this week to know that out of challenge; opportunity and innovation does arise. 

  1. WhatsApp, 2009
    • Yahoo veterans Jan Koum and Brian Acton created encrypted messaging app WhatsApp in 2009 as a way for people around the world to message each other quickly.  The app gained popularity in countries that do not have access to the same cell network capabilities as the U.S. because it can operate on Wi-Fi.
  1. Venmo, 2009
    • College friends Iqram Magdon-Ismail and Andrew Kortina launched digital payment app Venmo in 2009 as a way for peers to exchange cash digitally and without lofty transfer fees.
    • Payment processor Braintree bought Venmo for $26 milllion in 2012, and digital payment giant PayPal then acquired Braintree for $300 million in 2013.
  1. Groupon, 2008
    • Entrepreneur Andrew Mason founded Groupon, a website that promotes companies by offering deals on their products and services to consumers, in the middle of the 2008 recession.
    • “During a difficult time, Groupon was able to deliver performance-based marketing solutions to connect businesses and brands with their customers,” Stephen George, who was one of Groupon’s first five employees in 2008 and is now the CEO of experiential marketing platform Surkus, told FOX Business.
  1. Instagram, 2010
    • Engineers Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger created Instagram in 2010 as a visuals-focused form of social media that is centered around images and videos. The social media app now has more than 400 employees, according to its About page, and more than 120 million users.
    • Facebook bought the app in 2012 for $1 billion.
  1. Uber, 2009
    • Businessmen Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp founded Uber in 2009 after they couldn’t find a taxi ride on a cold night in Paris.
    • The rideshare giant has since expanded internationally across various platforms, including food delivery service, bike and scooter share service and temporary work staffing service. Uber is valued at $47 billion.
  1. Pinterest, 2010
    • Entrepreneurs Ben Silbermann, Evan Sharp and Paul Sciarra came together in 2010 to create Pinterest, a website and app that resembles a digital scrapbook.
    • More than 300 million people use the platform every month, according to Pinterest’s About page.
  1. Slack, 2009
    • Photo website Flickr co-founder Stewart Butterfield created Slack, a work messaging app, in 2009.
    • Slack has experienced a huge increase in demand since the COVID-19 outbreak led more companies and businesses to send employees home, according to a March 25 tweet threat from Butterfield.
  1. Square, 2009
    • Twitter founder Jack Dorsey and businessman Jim McKelvey started Square, a merchant services and mobile payment service, in 2009.
  1. GV, 2009
    • Venture capitalist Bill Maris founded GV, formerly Google Ventures, the venture capital arm of Alphabet Inc., in 2009.
    • GV has invested in a number of startups that were also founded during or directly after the 2008 recession including Uber, Slack and Cloudera.
  1. Cloudera, 2008
    • Google, Yahoo! and Facebook engineers Christophe Bisciglia, Amr Awadallah and Jeff Hammerbacher created Cloudera in 2008.
    • The Silicon Valley-based software company and data warehouse is currently valued at more than $2 billion.
    • “The pandemic we are dealing with is sending ripples throughout the business world,” Lin said. “When we start to rebuild, there are a few trends I hope will continue.”

Thank you Amit for being open to sharing this with the world. Please feel free to like, comment, and share with your friends, family, and peers.