A startup is a new business formed based on an idea that seeks to offer a unique solution to a problem in society. For instance, if you have an idea that will reduce data costs and increase data speeds in developing countries, you can go ahead to launch a startup to sell it to consumers.
People who launch startups seek to offer unique products and services to consumers that solve a problem for them or even seek to do an existing task in a better and more efficient way. However, launching a thriving business is not an easy task; it requires a lot of dedication, sacrifice, and sleepless nights to make it successful.
Knowing all these, it is evident that getting a startup to its feet is challenging. You have to put in the hard work required to grow and make the business thrive. Some people then share these obligations with friends and people they trust.
Establishing a business with friends with whom you understand and share the vision has several benefits. In this regard, we have teamed up with experts from job aggregator Jooble to discuss the top five startups launched by friends. Let’s get started.
1. Airbnb
On December 10, 2020, Airbnb started its initial public offering and is currently valued at a whopping value of $113 billion, but before this mammoth company became what it is today, it was an idea nurtured by three friends, namely Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia, Nathan Blecharczyk.
The story started in 2007 when roommates Joe Gabbia and Brian Chesky couldn’t afford to pay the rent of their apartment since both of them were unemployed. A conference took place during that period, and it attracted a high number of visitors to the city. The hotels couldn’t cater to the number of people that needed a place to stay. They decided to rent out a part of their apartment to some people who needed a place to stay to make extra money. They bought airbeds and created a website called air bed and breakfast.
The main purpose was to provide a place to stay for visitors that couldn’t find a hotel. They advertised in the local newspapers and eventually got their first guests. The trio realized that many people could also share their apartments with guests who needed a place to stay.
Seeing that their idea could turn into something massive, they decided to launch a business with another friend, Nathan Blecharczyk, another person of like mind. The trio faced challenges, such as lack of patronage, lack of investors, etc. They eventually overcame them when the company joined Y combinator, a platform that gave them the chance to work on refining their product.
After some time, they saw a $600,000 investment by Sequoia Capital, and after that, more investment started pouring in.
2. Uber
The story of Uber can be traced to a cold winter night in Paris. The founders Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp were in the city to attend a tech event graced by important tech figures. Their idea took form when they couldn’t get a cab to return to their hotels due to the winter storm. That was when they thought it was possible to order a cab from your mobile device and hire a private driver, which cost them as high.
When the conference was over, they both returned to their respective homes, but when Garrett Camp got back to San Francisco, he couldn’t get the idea out of his mind. He started working on the idea by buying a domain called ubercab.com.
The startup obtained its first significant funding, a $1.25 million round headed by Inaugural Round Capital, after beginning in 2009 and launching its first-ever ride in 2010. The following year, 2011, was a significant year for the expansion of Uber. The business expanded to New York, Seattle, Boston, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. early in the year after raising an $11 million Series A funding round headed by Benchmark. It also opened an office in Paris.
Kalanick said that Uber had gotten $37 million in Series B funding from Menlo Ventures, Goldman Sachs, and Jeff Bezos in December at the 2011 LeWeb conference. The business expanded its selection in 2012 when it introduced UberX, which offered a less-priced hybrid automobile as a substitute for a black car service.
3. Jooble
Eugene Sobakaryov and Roman Prokofiev first connected while both were students at Kyiv Polytechnic Institute in Ukraine. They both bonded pretty easily, connecting over their passion for entrepreneurship. Eugene Sobakaryov and Roman Prokofiev discovered a significant market demand for an organized job search platform supported by reliable employers and job descriptions to help potential job candidates easily get a job.
Millions of individuals use Jooble, a global job-search website, every day. The business has been active in the internet recruitment industry since 2006. It has grown from a startup formed by two students to a global employment platform. And according to SimilarWeb, Jooble is currently one of the top ten websites in the world for traffic in the Jobs and Employment category.
Jooble is now a Google and LinkedIn global partner whose technologies aid in reducing unemployment. The platform collects job openings from more than 140,000 sites worldwide each day. Corporate websites, social networks, classified ads, and other resources are some examples of sources. As a result, all employment offers are accessible in one location.
4. Warby Parker
This company was founded by Jeffrey Raider, Andrew Hunt, and Neil Blumenthal David Gilboa in 2010. The four friends were studying at the Wharton Business School at the time. They had an idea to start an internet store to sell eyeglasses while sitting in their college lab and talking about how and why eyewear was so expensive. They were all of the opinions that internet eyewear shopping would be very practical for consumers. Additionally, they reached out to their teachers about their concept and were given the motivation and support to go all in for it. At that time, the venture initiation program, an event organized to provide funding to startup enterprises, was coming up. They harnessed this program to get the funding needed to start the business. Following a month-long marketing training program, the four established the company and named it Warby parker.
Despite coming up with the concept for Warby Parker in 2008, the website hadn’t yet gone live two years later. The founders had to work quickly to launch the website before the March 2010 issue touched newsstands due to the impending Vogue feature. Within 48 hours of the magazine’s publication, WarbyParker.com had to temporarily halt the try-on at-home program due to an overwhelming volume of orders for their $95 glasses.
Since they published the site so rapidly, some features, including a “sold out” button, were left unfinished. Customers were placing orders even after the stock had run out. There was a 20,000-person waitlist. The positive side of this situation was that Warby Parker quickly surpassed its sales targets for the first quarter.
5. Flipkart
This business was established by two friends — Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal. The two came together to develop a comparative search engine in 2007. They left their position at amazon web services at the time because they recognized a significant gap in the Indian e-commerce market, and they later founded Flipkart.
With an initial investment of Rs 400,000, they started their business, and Flipkart began selling books because it was difficult to locate a supplier of electronics, clothing, or household goods in India at the time.
The business began operation in 2008 with an office in a two-room flat in Bangalore. Investors began to take notice of Flipkart’s success, and in 2009 the company received a financial investment of $1 million from an investment firm.
Flipkart had three offices spread across India, employing over 150 people during that time. They were able to sell books totaling Rs 40 million by the end of that year. Flipkart won over customers by offering round-the-clock customer care when Indian consumers did not feel comfortable shopping online. They were able to purchase the social book discovery service ‘we read’ from Bangalore in 2010, thanks to a $10 million investment from Tiger Global.
Flipkart introduced cash on the delivery system for the first time in India because the company did not have the expected success with people making payments before getting their goods. Flipkart sales continued to increase as a result of the company winning the trust of its customers. It had a revenue of 750 million rupees at the start of the 2011 fiscal year.
Conclusion
Although starting a business is difficult, doing it with friends can make the trip enjoyable and fruitful. Friends are always willing to lend a hand, and the benefits of starting your business with a buddy are endless.
These successful startups give us friendship goals and emphasize how you can leverage good relationships to earn some dough. However, having good relationships is not enough. The most crucial thing is establishing a startup with like-minded friends.
