8 ms·

WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton to leave company

119 points by ghosh 9y ago

gourou 9y ago
That's almost 3 years (October 6th 2014) since FB's acquisition, social media would have been much different today had they acquired Snapchat.
DigitalSea 9y ago
I'm guessing his stock has vested and he can now cash it out. Good on him, it was a nice success story selling for as much as they did to Facebook.
- sdfjkl 9y ago
  Jam Koum already cashed out in 2016: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Koum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Koum
  - jeanlucas 9y ago
    shh... He wants to make a bitter comment, let him be
    - logingone 9y ago
      Who's making a bitter comment?
  - gourou 9y ago
    He cashed out half of his FB stock
- AndrewKemendo 9y ago
  You know, not everyone wants to be at the same company for 8 years. The whole idea that if a co-founder leaves its a bad thing is antiquated. After a while you want to do something different.
  - forgottenpass 9y ago
    It's fine if they just want to do something different, but leaving isn't only seen as a reflection of their opinion of the post-accusation company. It still represents a brain drain regardless of motivation.
    - AndrewKemendo 9y ago
      It still represents a brain drain regardless of motivation. Not necessarily - and I'd say this is typical example of the Great-Man Myth. That role might be better served by someone other than a founder.
gjjrfcbugxbhf 9y ago
How will this affect their direction and approach as far as the end user is concerned?
kaskavalci 9y ago
Sharing a mobile-only link? Really? http://www.reuters.com/article/us-whatsapp-founder/whatsapp-co-founder-brian-acton-to-leave-company-idUSKCN1BO05Y http://www.reuters.com/article/us-whatsapp-founder/whatsapp-...
- pc86 9y ago
  Odd that this comment is collapsed by default, while the garbage comment below it is below 0, but expanded by default.
jeanlucas 9y ago
Hope now WhatsApp start caring more about business and integrations. As basically the only option for communication software in Latin America, it feels a lot behind.
- calvinbhai 9y ago
  Whatsapp for business is already in beta trials in India. I'm sure they are ironing out the wrinkles before releasing it worldwide. I think probably end of this year or early next year. Its a huge 'about to be tapped' market by FB that many people (mostly those who dont use WA) have a tough time fathoming.
- tsunamifury 9y ago
  Out of real curiosity, what business integrations would be at the top of your list?
  - Nothorized 9y ago
    Being able to pay someone, being able to command something out of the app. Being more like WeChat, literally.
senatorobama 9y ago
I swear to God, WhatsApp is THE startup fairytale. No dilution, bootstrapped, greenfield tech and mind boggling earn out. A once in a generation business story. I always mention WhatsApp when people want to do something overly complicated.
- AndrewKemendo 9y ago
  Agreed, not to mention Sequoia literally went and hunted the Founders down on foot in SF [1]. [1] https://youtu.be/8-pJa11YvCs?t=8m22s https://youtu.be/8-pJa11YvCs?t=8m22s
  - champagnepapi 9y ago
    Great video.
  - noir_lord 9y ago
    That's like something out of SV (HBO's show).
  - sah2ed 9y ago
    Interesting video. Brian Goetz mentioned that Sequoia built a tool they called "Early Bird" to help them keep track of messaging apps that show lots of traction in non-US app stores which was how they knew they really needed to get a Whatsapp deal, at any cost.
    - toomuchtodo 9y ago
      This is interesting; I've never come across job postings from VCs for their tooling/business line application development needs, but surely these roles must exist.
      - sah2ed 9y ago
        Yes, those roles do exist among top and aspiring top tier VCs, but VC being a people-oriented business means that Sequioa and other top tier VCs like a16z and YC [0] who build their own tools in-house should have no problem assembling a talented team of 1-3 engineers to write software by just reaching out to their network. [0] https://blog.ycombinator.com/investor-day-software/ https://blog.ycombinator.com/investor-day-software/
inverse_pi 9y ago
He has 6.5 BILLIONS. That's almost double what Brian Chesky (CEO Airbnb) has including paper money, more than Evan (CEO Snapchat) has, and more than Travis (CEO Uber) has including the ridiculous valuation. Just an observation.
- Danihan 9y ago
  Much more than YouTube sold for, total acquisition price. Which I thought was incredible at the time (and still do, considering how difficult is has been for Google to monetize, it seems.) I think WhatsApp was just overvalued, personally. It's excellent in many ways, but I cannot see Facebook ever making their money back on it.
  - ThrustVectoring 9y ago
    Acquiring threatening social competitors may be, in part, a cost of doing Facebook's core business. That is: Facebook bought WhatsApp not because they expected to make money off the acquisition, but because they were worried that they'd lose money from not doing so.
  - salsadip 9y ago
    In much of the world, WhatsApp is the preferred way of communication, instead of Facebook/FBMessenger. I use WhatsApp for very personal conversations with friends and family - breakups happen over WhatsApp, dates planned, personal news are all communicated through WhatsApp. Tapping into these kind of messages which tell FB way more than likes on pictures etc is invaluable for selling ads in my opinion. Even considering E2E encryption, I don't believe FB is not analysing this data when they have the opportunity to do so - the text analysis probably happens on device.
    - St0n3d 9y ago
      Nobody has found it doing that, though. It could be something that will be added in the future of course (let's hope not...), but "could be" is not really interesting for the current situation. It ain't analysing your chats at this time.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
ghostrss 9y ago
WhatsApp is so DEAD.
- BoorishBears 9y ago
  Off topic, but what's up with an 800 day old account with no submissions and only this as it's first comment?
  - ghostrss 9y ago
    Because, Facebook is ruining WhatsApp. Facebook sells information of its users. And yet people are happily feeding their data. Even WhatsApp's founders were not happy with the Facebook's policy. For them it was a mistakes that they became a product of Facebook. Yes, I've a problem with that. Don't you think its legit?
    - BoorishBears 9y ago
      It just seems like a strange first topic after 800 days in read-only mode
tsunamifury 9y ago
While I understand why the founder would leave at this point, WhatsApp is probably the platform with the most upside gain opportunity in existence today. It has proved that a new paradigm of software development is ready to be opened up in the developing world, has small and big businesses knocking down the door to get in, and the highest daily active user base around. The only downside is how they've failed to scale to accomidate the opportunity. But maybe they are right to go slow as they have network lock in.
- alexashka 9y ago
  What is this upside gain opportunity you speak of? From my limited understanding - WhatsApp merely made free (or extremely cheap) texting possible, bypassing cellular providers who charged an arm and a leg for text messages. That's their contribution. Is there something else? What's this new paradigm of software development?
  - tsunamifury 9y ago
    Micro-interfaces & payments being pushed via messaging. Tens of millions of businesses area already trying to hack it together via WhatsApp's existing features. For an existing example look at WeChat, which has limited application outside China but represents WhatsApp's future.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
yuvalmer 9y ago
The interesting thing about WhatsApp is that most of my American friends haven't heard about it by the time it was acquired for $19B. One of the biggest success stories of a US based company that went global first. Good luck to Brian on his next adventure.
NoB4Mouth 9y ago
I'm from an African country where Whatsapp has played a major role in the political uprising against autocratic governments. Its power to mobilize the masses to go on the streets and protest is incredible. Radios and TV stations couldn't do that due to the pressure and their fear of being shut down by authorities. But Authorities have found a way to mute Whatsapp: shutting down the Internet. Just search : "Internet or Whtasapp shut down in Cameroun, Gabon, DR Congo or Togo" to find out. We are currently looking for alternatives to Whatsapp messenger that can work even when the Net is down. Suggestions are welcome.
- baq 9y ago
  mesh net, but they'll just bring the power down. maybe solar-powered with battery backup? but that gets expensive.
  - zuluwill 9y ago
    but hopefully coming down considerably. Watch this youtube vide of Tony Seba https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2b3ttqYDwF0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2b3ttqYDwF0 (Stanford University futurist Tony Seba spent the last decades studying technological disruptions. He argues that the Electric Vehicle, battery storage, and solar power, along with autonomous vehicles, are a perfect example of a 10x exponential process which will wipe )
  - davedx 9y ago
    Yep! Mesh nets are great. Look up guifi.net, it's a large mesh net in Spain, for inspiration. Solar panels are relatively cheap these days. Maybe you don't need battery backup.
- 1024core 9y ago
  Same is happening in India. The government will shut down an entire area's mobile Internet just to prevent people from mobilizing.
- rakoo 9y ago
  I have no idea how well this works, but the Serval Project aims to let people communicate when the network is down: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serval_Project https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serval_Project
aluminussoma 9y ago
New foundation, or maybe he finally got a job at Twitter?: https://twitter.com/brianacton/status/1895942068 https://twitter.com/brianacton/status/1895942068 (The backstory is: Brian Acton was rejected from Facebook and Twitter in 2009)
sreenadh 9y ago
My only issue with whatsapp is how the data is stored in a central place. I am a person switching between ios and android and I have lost a lot of data. Plus even has issue in the same device after formatting. I am not a big fan of having my mobile number as my identity as I keep moving around and change my mobile when I get a better package. I wanted an app that assign me a unique id and I can share in that my current mobile number where people can call me in. Just yesterday, I was looking at a phone running all the various IM apps and whatsapp was the lowest with 18mb, IMO was 40mb while facebook was 100+ mb. not sure if it was the messenger alone or facebook + messenger. Facebook doesn't seems to be interested in improving whatsapp.

119 points by ghosh 9y ago

That's almost 3 years (October 6th 2014) since FB's acquisition, social media would have been much different today had they acquired Snapchat.

DigitalSea 9y ago

I'm guessing his stock has vested and he can now cash it out. Good on him, it was a nice success story selling for as much as they did to Facebook.

sdfjkl 9y ago
Jam Koum already cashed out in 2016: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Koum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Koum
- jeanlucas 9y ago
  shh... He wants to make a bitter comment, let him be
  - logingone 9y ago
    Who's making a bitter comment?
- gourou 9y ago
  He cashed out half of his FB stock
AndrewKemendo 9y ago
You know, not everyone wants to be at the same company for 8 years. The whole idea that if a co-founder leaves its a bad thing is antiquated. After a while you want to do something different.
- forgottenpass 9y ago
  It's fine if they just want to do something different, but leaving isn't only seen as a reflection of their opinion of the post-accusation company. It still represents a brain drain regardless of motivation.
  - AndrewKemendo 9y ago
    It still represents a brain drain regardless of motivation. Not necessarily - and I'd say this is typical example of the Great-Man Myth. That role might be better served by someone other than a founder.

gjjrfcbugxbhf 9y ago

How will this affect their direction and approach as far as the end user is concerned?

kaskavalci 9y ago

Sharing a mobile-only link? Really? http://www.reuters.com/article/us-whatsapp-founder/whatsapp-co-founder-brian-acton-to-leave-company-idUSKCN1BO05Y http://www.reuters.com/article/us-whatsapp-founder/whatsapp-...

pc86 9y ago
Odd that this comment is collapsed by default, while the garbage comment below it is below 0, but expanded by default.

jeanlucas 9y ago

Hope now WhatsApp start caring more about business and integrations. As basically the only option for communication software in Latin America, it feels a lot behind.

calvinbhai 9y ago
Whatsapp for business is already in beta trials in India. I'm sure they are ironing out the wrinkles before releasing it worldwide. I think probably end of this year or early next year. Its a huge 'about to be tapped' market by FB that many people (mostly those who dont use WA) have a tough time fathoming.
tsunamifury 9y ago
Out of real curiosity, what business integrations would be at the top of your list?
- Nothorized 9y ago
  Being able to pay someone, being able to command something out of the app. Being more like WeChat, literally.

senatorobama 9y ago

I swear to God, WhatsApp is THE startup fairytale. No dilution, bootstrapped, greenfield tech and mind boggling earn out. A once in a generation business story. I always mention WhatsApp when people want to do something overly complicated.

AndrewKemendo 9y ago
Agreed, not to mention Sequoia literally went and hunted the Founders down on foot in SF [1]. [1] https://youtu.be/8-pJa11YvCs?t=8m22s https://youtu.be/8-pJa11YvCs?t=8m22s
- champagnepapi 9y ago
  Great video.
- noir_lord 9y ago
  That's like something out of SV (HBO's show).
- sah2ed 9y ago
  Interesting video. Brian Goetz mentioned that Sequoia built a tool they called "Early Bird" to help them keep track of messaging apps that show lots of traction in non-US app stores which was how they knew they really needed to get a Whatsapp deal, at any cost.
  - toomuchtodo 9y ago
    This is interesting; I've never come across job postings from VCs for their tooling/business line application development needs, but surely these roles must exist.
    - sah2ed 9y ago
      Yes, those roles do exist among top and aspiring top tier VCs, but VC being a people-oriented business means that Sequioa and other top tier VCs like a16z and YC [0] who build their own tools in-house should have no problem assembling a talented team of 1-3 engineers to write software by just reaching out to their network. [0] https://blog.ycombinator.com/investor-day-software/ https://blog.ycombinator.com/investor-day-software/

inverse_pi 9y ago

He has 6.5 BILLIONS. That's almost double what Brian Chesky (CEO Airbnb) has including paper money, more than Evan (CEO Snapchat) has, and more than Travis (CEO Uber) has including the ridiculous valuation. Just an observation.

Danihan 9y ago
Much more than YouTube sold for, total acquisition price. Which I thought was incredible at the time (and still do, considering how difficult is has been for Google to monetize, it seems.) I think WhatsApp was just overvalued, personally. It's excellent in many ways, but I cannot see Facebook ever making their money back on it.
- ThrustVectoring 9y ago
  Acquiring threatening social competitors may be, in part, a cost of doing Facebook's core business. That is: Facebook bought WhatsApp not because they expected to make money off the acquisition, but because they were worried that they'd lose money from not doing so.
- salsadip 9y ago
  In much of the world, WhatsApp is the preferred way of communication, instead of Facebook/FBMessenger. I use WhatsApp for very personal conversations with friends and family - breakups happen over WhatsApp, dates planned, personal news are all communicated through WhatsApp. Tapping into these kind of messages which tell FB way more than likes on pictures etc is invaluable for selling ads in my opinion. Even considering E2E encryption, I don't believe FB is not analysing this data when they have the opportunity to do so - the text analysis probably happens on device.
  - St0n3d 9y ago
    Nobody has found it doing that, though. It could be something that will be added in the future of course (let's hope not...), but "could be" is not really interesting for the current situation. It ain't analysing your chats at this time.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

ghostrss 9y ago

WhatsApp is so DEAD.

BoorishBears 9y ago
Off topic, but what's up with an 800 day old account with no submissions and only this as it's first comment?
- ghostrss 9y ago
  Because, Facebook is ruining WhatsApp. Facebook sells information of its users. And yet people are happily feeding their data. Even WhatsApp's founders were not happy with the Facebook's policy. For them it was a mistakes that they became a product of Facebook. Yes, I've a problem with that. Don't you think its legit?
  - BoorishBears 9y ago
    It just seems like a strange first topic after 800 days in read-only mode

tsunamifury 9y ago

While I understand why the founder would leave at this point, WhatsApp is probably the platform with the most upside gain opportunity in existence today. It has proved that a new paradigm of software development is ready to be opened up in the developing world, has small and big businesses knocking down the door to get in, and the highest daily active user base around. The only downside is how they've failed to scale to accomidate the opportunity. But maybe they are right to go slow as they have network lock in.

alexashka 9y ago
What is this upside gain opportunity you speak of? From my limited understanding - WhatsApp merely made free (or extremely cheap) texting possible, bypassing cellular providers who charged an arm and a leg for text messages. That's their contribution. Is there something else? What's this new paradigm of software development?
- tsunamifury 9y ago
  Micro-interfaces & payments being pushed via messaging. Tens of millions of businesses area already trying to hack it together via WhatsApp's existing features. For an existing example look at WeChat, which has limited application outside China but represents WhatsApp's future.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

yuvalmer 9y ago

The interesting thing about WhatsApp is that most of my American friends haven't heard about it by the time it was acquired for $19B. One of the biggest success stories of a US based company that went global first. Good luck to Brian on his next adventure.

NoB4Mouth 9y ago

I'm from an African country where Whatsapp has played a major role in the political uprising against autocratic governments. Its power to mobilize the masses to go on the streets and protest is incredible. Radios and TV stations couldn't do that due to the pressure and their fear of being shut down by authorities. But Authorities have found a way to mute Whatsapp: shutting down the Internet. Just search : "Internet or Whtasapp shut down in Cameroun, Gabon, DR Congo or Togo" to find out. We are currently looking for alternatives to Whatsapp messenger that can work even when the Net is down. Suggestions are welcome.

baq 9y ago
mesh net, but they'll just bring the power down. maybe solar-powered with battery backup? but that gets expensive.
- zuluwill 9y ago
  but hopefully coming down considerably. Watch this youtube vide of Tony Seba https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2b3ttqYDwF0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2b3ttqYDwF0 (Stanford University futurist Tony Seba spent the last decades studying technological disruptions. He argues that the Electric Vehicle, battery storage, and solar power, along with autonomous vehicles, are a perfect example of a 10x exponential process which will wipe )
- davedx 9y ago
  Yep! Mesh nets are great. Look up guifi.net, it's a large mesh net in Spain, for inspiration. Solar panels are relatively cheap these days. Maybe you don't need battery backup.
1024core 9y ago
Same is happening in India. The government will shut down an entire area's mobile Internet just to prevent people from mobilizing.
rakoo 9y ago
I have no idea how well this works, but the Serval Project aims to let people communicate when the network is down: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serval_Project https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serval_Project

aluminussoma 9y ago

New foundation, or maybe he finally got a job at Twitter?: https://twitter.com/brianacton/status/1895942068 https://twitter.com/brianacton/status/1895942068 (The backstory is: Brian Acton was rejected from Facebook and Twitter in 2009)

sreenadh 9y ago

My only issue with whatsapp is how the data is stored in a central place. I am a person switching between ios and android and I have lost a lot of data. Plus even has issue in the same device after formatting. I am not a big fan of having my mobile number as my identity as I keep moving around and change my mobile when I get a better package. I wanted an app that assign me a unique id and I can share in that my current mobile number where people can call me in. Just yesterday, I was looking at a phone running all the various IM apps and whatsapp was the lowest with 18mb, IMO was 40mb while facebook was 100+ mb. not sure if it was the messenger alone or facebook + messenger. Facebook doesn't seems to be interested in improving whatsapp.