This Is How Jan Koum Introduced WhatsApp To The World Back In 2009

This Is How Jan Koum Introduced WhatsApp To The World Back In 2009

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JULIE BORT TECH  APR. 13, 2014, 2:13 AM

We all know by now the happy ending to the WhatsApp story: Facebook bought the startup in February for a jaw-dropping $19 billion.

Given that, it’s fun to look back on how founder Jan Koum launched WhatsApp into the world.

He apparently posted comments around the Internet.

Rahul Sood, general manager of Microsoft Ventures says he found one from back in the day, when the two used to frequent the same Internet forum. Sood shared it on LinkedIn,calling it “one of the best introductions from a future billionaire ever.”

Note the warning about the bug that will crash the app (click to enlarge):

That post came a few days after this one, uncovered by Brilliant Ads:

He obviously got the feedback he wanted and much, much more. With the sale of his company,he’s now worth about $6.8 billion.

 

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Kee Koon Boon (“KB”) is the co-founder and director of HERO Investment Management which provides specialized fund management and investment advisory services to the ARCHEA Asia HERO Innovators Fund (www.heroinnovator.com), the only Asian SMID-cap tech-focused fund in the industry. KB is an internationally featured investor rooted in the principles of value investing for over a decade as a fund manager and analyst in the Asian capital markets who started his career at a boutique hedge fund in Singapore where he was with the firm since 2002 and was also part of the core investment committee in significantly outperforming the index in the 10-year-plus-old flagship Asian fund. He was also the portfolio manager for Asia-Pacific equities at Korea’s largest mutual fund company. Prior to setting up the H.E.R.O. Innovators Fund, KB was the Chief Investment Officer & CEO of a Singapore Registered Fund Management Company (RFMC) where he is responsible for listed Asian equity investments. KB had taught accounting at the Singapore Management University (SMU) as a faculty member and also pioneered the 15-week course on Accounting Fraud in Asia as an official module at SMU. KB remains grateful and honored to be invited by Singapore’s financial regulator Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to present to their top management team about implementing a world’s first fact-based forward-looking fraud detection framework to bring about benefits for the capital markets in Singapore and for the public and investment community. KB also served the community in sharing his insights in writing articles about value investing and corporate governance in the media that include Business Times, Straits Times, Jakarta Post, Manual of Ideas, Investopedia, TedXWallStreet. He had also presented in top investment, banking and finance conferences in America, Italy, Sydney, Cape Town, HK, China. He has trained CEOs, entrepreneurs, CFOs, management executives in business strategy & business model innovation in Singapore, HK and China.

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