Venmo: The Best Music App Ever?
Subscribe for short startups tories every Sunday!
________________________
In 2001, Andrew Kortina and Iqram Magdon-Ismail were just two randomly paired roommates starting their freshmen year at the University of Pennsylvania. The two became friends quickly as they would often work on side projects together throughout college After graduating, neither friend knew what he wanted to do with his life, so they found an apartment together, and literally went door to door asking if anyone needed a website designed.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Years went by as they would work on various side projects such as website design and the pair worked for separate startup companies. And finally, it was in 2009 when they had their billion idea…Kind of. The two friends were sitting in a jazz show, and they thought it would be cool if you were able to download the live show by sending a text message to the band right then and there, and have an mp3 show up in your email. Later in the same year, the two travelled to New York to work on their music idea.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Upon arrival, Irqam realized that he forgot his wallet in Philadelphia and Kortina ended up covering him the whole trip. Irqam paid him back with a check, and the two had their lightbulb moment. They thought, “why am I using a check when we do everything else with our phones?” Their music idea quickly pivoted as the first Venmo prototype worked over SMS and was incredibly basic. You simply texted people money, and they received it. Then, they had the brilliant idea of adding a social feed and making.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
The pair had a hard time finding investors, being denied time and time again because many had a hard time seeing how they’d be able to make a profit. It was a friend and his father who ended up funding them. And the investors were right because honestly Venmo was not profitable, but that didn’t stop Braintree from acquiring Venmo for $26 million in 2012.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Today, Venmo, now owned by the giant PayPal who is nearly worth $100 billion. And that’s how Venmo Got started. Thank you!