What started as a rumor was confirmed a few hours back:
ZipDial has been acquired by Twitter!
Image credit – Techcrunch
While the price is not announced and the rumors say it’s between $US ’30-40′ million, that is hardly the point of this note.
These are the 3 lessons I want to share that are clearly distilled by this acquisition:
1) Innovators and First Movers WIN
I was pitched this idea as part of the Bloomberg PITCH series 1 by Valerie Rozycki Wagoner – the elegant Co-founder & CEO of ZipDial and the entire jury (Gondal, me and others) LOVED THE PASSION, the innovation and the way a “consumer insight” (of giving missed calls) had been turned into a business.
A year back I worked with Valerie and her team to execute a missed call to tweet ‘follow’ service for my guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and I was so impressed by the ideation, logic and execution of the team. In fact, I had pointed to Sanjay, Valerie and to a Twitter senior dude that an acquisition made sense for all of them!
2) You don’t have to be A LOCAL
Valerie created and sold a Company in India being an American. Mobile2win China was created and sold by us to Disney – we, being Indian promoters, and the Company being started up in China.
You don’t HAVE TO BE local to win. If you are a real entrepreneur, with a real idea, then by grit, pain and luck, you can win in any country in the world.
3) COPYCATS COPY. INNOVATORS TAKE THE PRIZE.
After ZipDial, hundreds of Copycats came. They reduced prices, went after ZipDial’s clients and just ruined the market.
I was told by many, “It’s a loss making business. There is no big deal. Anyone can set up a missed call service. What’s the differentiator…” etc etc.
The Twitter acquisition confirms what I have always believed from Day 1 – It’s NEVER ABOUT COPYING something more successfully – It’s ALWAYS about CREATING ORIGINAL VALUE.
I can even tell you now that PESSIMISTS will say (even as comments to this post) – “Alok, what’s the value? 30-40 million? That’s it? Such and such e-com is 20000 Billion xyz….”
You know … I don’t give a shit.
I LOVE ENTREPRENEURS WHO CREATE VALUE FROM THIN AIR and this is just that perfect case.
BRAVO AND WELL DONE VALERIE AND SANJAY SWAMY. Love you guys!
Respect and Salute
****
Valerie at g2w office with her copy of AOY in Oct 2013 🙂
*****
mohit agrawal
Be Original..Success will follow sooner or later 🙂
Jaseem Thayal Shareef
Great insights! Very happy to hear the news 🙂
Krishna Chandran
Spot on Rodinhood.
Manav Shankar
You can spot people who will succeed, so early.
Puneet Nirogam Aggarwal
Awesome Lessons !! Happy for Valerie, Zipdial and Twitter 🙂
Aayush Srivastava
Alok sir, can you point me to some strategies one can use to enter a market where the consumers have a very different cultural mindset, and the type of marketing strategies which works for Indians may not work there.
Do you hire locals to do that for you? Often you need to make the entire product keeping in mind the new market.
What kind of companies provide such market research for a new startup at low prices?
Aayush Srivastava
I would also like to know if one should create a startup with an exit strategy in mind right from the beginning? For instance, one would need to take key product and marketing decisions keeping in mind the future expansion plans of potential acquirers etc. You would also need to align you culture, values and mission with them.
I find such a strategy very materialistic. If you are passionate about creating true value and solving real world problems you would never plan an exit.
But you also need angel money for a high growth and they expect a quick exit. How do you reconcile these two things?
Karan Ahuja
Amazing story .