Story of
And impact to Estonian startup scene
The global communications tool
that billions of people rely on every day for
sharing experiences, from living room to
boardroom
Slide 2
40
60+ 360
PERCENT
Of the total of all global
International PSTN and
Skype calling minutes
50
MILLION
MILLION
Users online at peak times
Users at 100 minutes per month
2
PERCENT
BILLION
Of Skype Calls & Video
Minutes of voice and video
in one day
Competition
WeChat, QQ,
Whazzup, Viber,
Telecoms on one side and
Snapchat,
new startups with established
Facebook, Gtalk,
internet companies on the
Facetime, ooVoo,
other side have kept Skype
sharp on its mission
Jitsi, VoxOx,
goober, Ekiga, etc
Stockholm
Tallinn & Tartu
Redmond
New York
Palo Alto
LondonLuxemburg Moscow
Prague
Tokyo
Hong Kong
Foreigners
Estonians
Female
Male
Skype
Singapore
Microsoft
TIMELINE
Josh
Silverman
as CEO
Millions of users online
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
skype.com
registered
Michael
Van
Swaaij as
CEO
eBay buys Skype
for 2.6B $
Tony
Bates as
CEO
Silverlake
buys
Skype
2.75B $
Dan Berg
as CTO
MS buys Skype
for 8.5B $
Skype
prepares
for IPO
Mark
Gillett as
CTO
Values
Honest
Fast
Every company has values to
assist everyone in decision
making and making the
whole bigger then the sum of
parts
Disruptive
Make mistakes
User centric
Fun
Skype cultural elements
We are product
engineering led
We are truly global
We solve for a
dynamic world
(and convert to
ideas to users
quickly)
We put users at the
heart of our
decision making
Missed opportunities
Still one revenue stream
Mobile penetration
Social network explosion
Developer ecosystem
Photo’s courtesy: SiliconANGLE
Photo’s courtesy: University of Washington
One of first Skype group pictures
Photo’s courtesy: Eileen Burbridge
Companies that contributed to Skype Estonia
talentpool
Beginnings
Most hired through networks
Hire attitude, skills can be learned
No bullshit mgmt style
Work hard play hard
Being disruptive unites
Culture and principles
We fly so you don’t have to
I don’t know if I am good enough to be here
We can’t screw this up, we can’t let each other down
Fake it until you make it
Eat your own dogfood
Skype is the best thing that can happen to you professionally
Culture and principles
We are working with smartest people
We are working in best environment possible
Quality is built in
You are on the bus or off the bus
You might not like how things are but you love Skype
#SkypeMafia 2013
Ubix.io
Ramu Sunkara
ZeroTurnaround
Candycane
Merocrat
Steve Jurvetson
Metamed
Guardtime
Blipboard
Fortumo
AdsWizz
Tim Draper
Riina Einberg
Tyler Wells
Garage48
Oliver Reitalu
Michael Bevin
Fleep
Trou.pe
Ben Horowitz
Mike Barnes
Bill Draper
<Stealth>
Kurt Thywissen
Viktoria Ruubel
Qik
The Factory
Martin Villig
Priidu Zilmer
Marc Andreessen
Mikael Suvi
Maaii
MessageMe
Jason Fischl
Don Albert
DFJ
InkSpin1
Jaanus Kase
Mike Bartlett
Henn Ruukel
Erik Laansoo
Jaan Tallinn
Rovio
Marko Kreen
Bhaskar Roy
RedMart
OMGPOP
August Capital
Draper Richards
Malthe Sigurdsson
Duncan Lamb
Asko Oja
Nikolay Abkairov
Andreessen Horowitz
Priit Kasesalu
Michael Jackson
Chris Lewis
Janus Friis
Blip.TV
Bessemer Ventures
Sellfy
Neo Ideo
Howard Hartenbaum
Jonathan Christensen
Julian Spittka
Koen Vos
Twilio
Ambient Sound Investments
Rdio
Carter Adamson
Betaworks
First Decade of #SkypeMafia
Grows Up
Pooj Preena
Stephanie Robesky
Mangrove Capital
Memolane
Tank Top TV
Turochas Fuad
Eunice Lim
Morten Lund
Scott Bagby
Supercell
Camino Networks
Toivo Annus
Taavet Hinrikus
Atomico
Dan Hynes
TravelMob
Remby.com
Mike Volpi
Sten Tamkivi
Niklas Zennstrom
Joost
CrushPad
RougeFrog
Stefan Oberg
Geoffrey Prentice
Fab.com
Voxtrot
GroupMe
Jolicloud
Liz Rice
Eric Lagier
Shin Iwata
ASI Private Equity
Sunrise
Stephanie Bouchet
MyPhotoSchool
Carlos Pires
Ahti Heinla
Michael van Swaaij
Skype
Nils Hammar
Dan Neary
TweetDeck
Tero Hurskainen
FON
DailyPerfect
Eileen Burbridge
eBay
Kelly Poon
Edicy
Ott Kaukver
500 Startups
Josh Silverman
Lenn Pryor
Jared Hecht
MyGardenSchool
Tiit Paananen
Rowena Knapp
Mendeley
Kindo (MyHeritage)
Renno Paat
Seedcamp
American Express
Eric Partaker
Mart Kelder
Margus Holland
Index Ventures
Mart Oruaas
GrabCAD
Yee Lee
David Gurle
Elke Karskens
Chilango
Stefan Glaenzer
Jens Kasemets
Klaus Hommels
Taavi Tuisk
Pohjala Beer
Joonathan Magi
Pixtape
King.com
Asko Seeba
Danny Rimer
Robert Miller
Dan Houghton
Saul Klein
Facebook
TaskRabbit
Eilinen
Last.fm
Microsoft
Steve Martocci
Transferwise
Elspeth Briscoe
Kate Opekar
Wilhelm Lundborg
Ahti Liin
Stuttcars.com
Usual
Passion Capital
Siim Teller
Simon Tickner
Eva−Lotta Lamm
Faisal Galaria Erik Andersson
Andre Karpitstsenko
Tony Saigh
One Jackson
Number of people on the graph: 110
Number of ex-Skype startup founders: 54
Number of Skype-spawned startups: 50
Number of professional investors on the graph: 16
Number of individual angel investors: 31
Number of investments captured: 136
Andres Sehr
Nicholas Babaian
Ed Botterill
Nucleus
LivingSocial
Kathy Dalpes
Shaka
Silver Lake
Mooncascade
Henrique Penha
Stardoll
Katango
Jaanus Kivistik
Siim Viidu
Google
Tim Botterill
Simon Hade
Jaman
Gareth OLaughlin
Martin Tajur
Teamtailor
GoCardless
James Peck
Brian OShaughnessy
Perzo
Martin Rand
Marinexplore
Andrus Purde
Spotify
Tieday Group
Anders Hallin
Singalo
Flattr
Pipedrive
reQall
Streamtainment
Mynewsdesk
Lifecake
Apple
Listhings
Electronic Ar ts
OneID
Pramana Collective
Vitalfields
Causata
Lube Panda
Naspers
Space Ape Games
Duego
Achoo
v1.2
Bokavard.se
Skype, founders & acquisitions
Startups & founding relationships
Investors & money flow
Other companies
Working relationships
Estonian startups from Skype
Candycane
Main takeaways from Skype story
Its possible from here
Networks matter
Success lies in an ability to work across timezones and cultures
Hiring right people is everything
Not good enough – I have seen what good looks like
We were lucky and its probably will never repeat exactly like this
Other companies with startup ecosystems
Thank You