Niklas Zennstrom: What I’ve Learned

A couple interesting recurring themes from advice lists like these is that failure is ok, and that often times no one buys into a project that will later become successful. This is consistent with my experience as well. I've had probably 10 businesses fail. When I started the one that supports myself and my family no one was interested in helping, possibly in light of past failures. Many people passed on partnership opportunities. As a result I had to learn a lot of sys admin stuff and figure out how to promote my product alone. Six years later, I am the sole owner and employee. No dilution, I know how everything works and it pays for a comfortable life in Southeast Asia. (I am an American.) Launched a couple business since that one -- both failures. But all you really need is one good one to change your life.

What's most fascinating about Niklas is his recurring theme of P2P on Kazaa, Skype and Joost. At the first sight it seems that these companies are disconnected (different markets) but his true accomplishment was to leverage the P2P technology for different use cases (file sharing, voice and video) and at the same time making it transparent from the user experience.

I also find fascinating that even Skype's business model seems to be P2P-driven: Skype seems to charge only for services that use the company's infrastructure, while P2P services (those that do not directly use Skype's servers) are free.

Also, maybe, Meg Whitman is a moron? Purchasing skype w/o also purchasing the backing tech has to be one of the dumbest acquisitions in a long time in the valley, rivaling the acquisitions of bebo and myspace.