In what could come as a shock to many industry watchers and business analysts, WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum has said in an interview that most startup ideas are "stupid." This comes at a time when so much focus has been put on startups with many big names in business showing interest in investing in them.
In the interview, which was first published on RBC in Russian and reproduced in English by Medium.com, Koum spoke about Facebook's acquisition of WhatsApp, his future plans and more. He said that he has no plans to invest in startups in the future.
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"Actually I do not have any plans of investing into startups: I am not the man who would do this. I think that most of startup ideas are absolutely stupid. At this moment, I am busy working on WhatsApp and I keep thinking all the time how I can make this product better. I am not interested in any other projects at the moment," said Koum when asked if he would invest in startups.
The 39-year-old billionaire said that his life relatively remained the same even after WhatsApp was sold to Facebook for $19 billion. He still works with the mobile phone messaging app along with co-founder Brian Acton.
He said WhatsApp is still under their control, but has undergone changes in terms of manpower and infrastructure after Facebook bought it.
"The product development is totally under our control. Facebook helps in other spheres — finances, lawyers, PR, HR... When we were independent, we did not have a financial director. We received the bills, and Brian or I pressed the button "pay". We were a small independent company, and we could afford it. Now we are a part of Facebook, a public company, and the requirements are different," he said.
Koum said their target at the moment is to get 1 billion users for WhatsApp and not profit.
"For the moment, we do not have the task to earn money. The deal with Facebook helped us to channel our resources into growth and product development. In coming future we do not plan to focus on monetization. Our aim is to attract more than 1 billion users," he said.
