Successful Micro Startups: Major Web Companies That Started Extremely Small

In the last few months, I have started to follow on Twitter a former batchmate of mine at FAST with whom I had no interactions during our days at FAST. I had zero interest in computer science, and she was probably way too interested in her studies, hence, we never crossed paths as I was almost always busy skipping classes. However, having developed a profound interest in computer science and related matters some 18 years ago, I have finally started to look for people of interest who are doing well in their fields to learn from them or, if possible, discuss matters with them. That former batch fellow recently reposted a tweet which stated that technology people are crazy in believing that they can start with just one or two people. As I have been infrequently reading about the small startup culture for a while now, hence, I decided to do a cursory search on the Internet to find the companies that started with just one or at max three individuals. Despite having started this small, they were able to gain significant traction before they eventually started to increase their headcount dramatically. As just a cursory search has brought to my attention around 40 or so companies, therefore, the following list seems quite convincing to me to at least postulate that technology people can legitimately start with just a couple of people, and once the revenue reaches an acceptable enough level, they can then increase the headcount to expand into other areas, or, as is known in the business world, diversify from their core business or significantly improve their offering just as Amazon has done with contactless checkout stores in America.

When it comes to the due diligence process, to determine whether most of the people involved were purely technically trained individuals, I would for the time being like to offer my apologies for not having enough time to perform rigorous checks. I have a long list of items that have been awaiting my attention for a while, and I would like to return to them for the time being. However, circumstances permitting, I promise to research the backgrounds of all of the people whose names I have included and update the post to reflect what percentage of the following tremendously successful startups were launched by purely technically trained individuals.

I would also like to add that I almost entirely focused on the major success stories launched by a couple or few people in the USA. Once I have finished the high priority items on my To-Do list, I will try to expand this list by looking for mojor success stories across the European continent, as well. The chances of finding such micro startups within the European continent which then expanded into major companies are quite high based on the results of this extremely casual search and the results pulled from just the top 5–8 posts.

The following list first mentions the name of the company and then the names of the founders who founded that company. Some concluding thoughts and remarks are included after the list.

1. Microsoft: Bill Gates, Paul Allen
2. Oracle: Larry Ellison, Bob Miner, Ed Oates
3. Adobe: John Warnock, Charles Geschke
4. Yahoo: Jerry Yang, David Filo
5. Google: Larry Page and Sergey Brin
6. Yandex: Arkady Volozh
7. Pixlr: Ola Savenderson
8. Atlassian: Mike Brookes, Scott Farquhar
9. Qualtrics: Ryan Smith, Jared Smith, Stuart Orgill
10. Salesforce: Marc Benioff, Parker Harris
11. Tumblr: David Karp
12. Bebo: Michael and Xochi Birch
13. Ahnlabs: Ahn Cheol-soo
14. Snapchat: Evan Spiegel, Reggie Brown, Bobby Murphy
15. Instagram: Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger
16. Airbnb: Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia
17. Zynga: Mark Pincus
18. YouTube: Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karimrley
19. LinkedIn: Reid Hoffman
20. LegalZoom: Brian S. Lee, Brian Liu, Edward Hartman, and Robert Shapiro
21. Amazon.com: Jeff Bezos
22. Dell: Michael Dell
23. BRAK Systems: Robert Herjavec, sold to At&T
24. Plenty Of Fish: Markus Frind

    Thinking back now I am amazed I was able to do what I did. I spent at least 2 to 3 months of every year traveling, and during this time there where insane scaling issues. But somehow I still managed to create the largest dating site in the world without a single employee and travel the world! — Markus Frind

25. K-Bot Communications, Product Slippet: Jay Bazzinotti and a Friend
26. EventBrite: Kevin Hartz, Julia Hartz
27. VMware: Diane Greene, Mendel Rosenblum
28. Clearco, formerly, Clearbanc: Andrew D’Souzaand, Michele Romanov
29. Next Trucking: Lidia Yan, Elton Chung.
30. Honeyfund: Sara Margulis, Josh Margulis
31. LiSA: Philippe and Sophie Frères

    Dusseldorf-based retail tech company that launched LiSA, in 2018.

32. Canva: Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht
33. Flickr: Stewart Butterfield and Caterina Fake
34. Reddit: Steve Huffman, Alexis Ohanian, and Aaron Swartz
35. Twitter: Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams.
36. Buffer: Joel Gascoigne
37. Square: Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey
38. DotBlock: Brendan Brader, John Reyes
39. RedHat: Bob Young and Marc Ewing
40. Pinterest: Ben Silbermann, Paul Sciarra, and Evan Sharp
41. Hotmail: Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith

Concluding Remarks

Having listed all of the companies that were launched by just a couple to few people, I would like to add that the selling point (USP) of certain software applications and services makes them almost irresistible and renders all of the traditional methods way too cumbersome in comparison. For example, as a habitual letter writer since my mid-teens, when I first joined my computer science institution here in Lahore, FAST, Lahore, to be precise, not a single person had to convince me that email was much more convenient than the usual way of sending letters, which, of course, involves all of the following steps:

1. Find your favorite writing pad and pen.
2. Start writing the letter hoping that you would not make any grammatical or spelling mistakes.
3. If you eventually make any mistakes during the writing process, either correct them, or if the letter is replete with mistakes, start over again.
4. Having finished the letter and checked and double-checked it for grammar and spelling mistakes, find an envelope, neatly place it in the envelope, write the postal address, and then set off for the nearest post office.
5. Once at the postal office, pay for the postage stamps and then wait for the letter to reach its destination within an estimated period of 10 days for international deliveries.

With computers, however, you do not have to take 90% of the steps. Just start writing your email in your preferred editor, and the spelling and grammar checker will along the way keep telling you where you have once again misspelled a word or two. As most computer users mostly spend their working days in front of a computer, hence they do not have to look for any additional devices or accessories, like pen and paper. Although they have to pay an Internet fee, however, with 35–50 GB data plans now costing fewer than 1250 rupees per month, they can even watch movies on their computers. This phenomenal level of ease introduced by emailing systems or applications makes the application and the process so very irresistible that nobody needs to market the emailing services.

Similarly, with one-click publishing, blog publishing platforms have made it remarkably easy to publish content for promising and established authors alike that some of them now just do not feel the need to publish using the usual publishing routes. The sheer ease introduced by the blogging platforms makes it thoroughly unnecessary to promote blog publishing platforms. Nascent and established authors keep searching for the next better implementation to further improve the appearance of their blog and make it stand out from the rest.

The question-and-answer websites like StackExchange and ExpertExchange which experts visit frequently or infrequently to respond to newcomers’ answers have made it spectacularly easy to find verified answers to your questions that newcomers have to neither visit the libraries nor shops to find the right books to look for the answers.

Although social media websites and dating websites have largely been a disappointment as the companies involved have put in place zero measures to ensure the authenticity of the people sending other people friend requests, nevertheless, the core idea once again is overwhelmingly compelling. Without leaving the confines of your room, one could, if the implementers were to implement it properly, find the perfect chatting partners. Similarly, services that allow users to book their plane tickets, shop online, run enhanced spelling and grammar checks on their content, and gather information from portals maintained by experts or spectacularly well-read authors are all examples of digital services that do not need much marketing.

One last aspect of the life that humans inherit upon being born is called the “Existential Crisis.” The majority of office bearers whose offices experience almost no footfall at all have to occupy themselves with some form of entertainment so that the inner conflicts would not wreak havoc on their mental health. To maintain some semblance of sanity, they have to rely on programs, articles, stories, fiction, or even poetry written by others. With the advent of the internet and all of the information and entertainment portals like YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, and the rest, it has become spectacularly easy for such people to keep themselves entertained without letting the unrelenting thought processes badly damage their mental health. In the modern world, this very essence of existence, the existential crisis, makes reliance on connected devices and using Internet services an almost must, hence, some become an overnight sensation without any marketing at all.