If there is anything that the 21st century has taught it’s that the future is unpredictable and one has to be forward-thinking to stay ahead of the curve, especially as everyone is reaching for success. Today’s founder focus is on a duo always prepared to harness their momentum and make the hard decisions necessary to persevere in a crowded marketplace. Of course, I’m talking about Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy of Snapchat (SNAP).

Starting from its humble beginnings as the pet project of three Stanford juniors in 2011, SNAP has grown to be social media’s biggest underdog, achieving over 300M daily active users (DAU). The company’s success can be attributed to two defining factors: an ability to innovate and the steadfast commitment of Spiegel and Murphy to their product.

The core concept of SNAP might have seemed illogical at first (a messaging app which deletes its content? Yeah right!), but instead anticipated the negative reaction Gen Z has against traditional social media. Turns out that teens found the privacy Snapchat provided far more appealing than the ever-present models of Facebook and Instagram. In essence, SNAP’s core feature had already cornered a market that the social media giant could only dream of penetrating.

None of this is to say that Facebook had not been paying attention to the waves being made by the smaller fish. Indeed, Zuckerberg personally offered to buy the fledgling company, first for $60M and then for $3B. However, Spiegel and Murphy did the unthinkable and declined twice, choosing instead to stick to their guns.

Now, one does not simply reject the will of Mark and Facebook quickly rushed their competitor, “Poke” to market. Never heard of it? That’s because Snapchat absolutely blew it out of the water, propelled by their innovations in User Interface and industry-defining features such as Snap Stories and Face Filters. Facebook would shutter Poke in 2014 while Snapchat has continued to grow to an enterprise value which dwarfs Zuckerberg’s offer of $3B.

In the years since Snapchat has become a trendsetter. “Stories” are now a feature ubiquitous across the industry, and the app’s hold on Gen Z shows no signs of loosening (even with the arrival of TikTok). None of this would have been possible without the founders’ commitment to their product and recognition that they had the momentum to triumph. 

The story of SNAP represents why I look for startups with a similar attitude. It says a lot when a founder has the opportunity to take the money and run but instead pours their heart and soul into the company.  And pouring heart and soul into a company one believes in is what I see with a company we’ve been talking about a lot recently in the Boardroom – GroGuru!

Today we established that a company’s ability to seize the moment and innovate is a contributor towards success. GroGuru is making precisely those strides.

GroGuru’s technology harnesses innovations in cloud-computing and AI to provide farmers with the data and hardware they need for strategic water management.

As the folks over at GroGuru acknowledge, there are two things we humans need: food and water. Their technology is poised to efficiently answer the questions of sustainability certain to be asked as our society heads ever further into the future.

If their vision sounds appealing to you, check out the video above for an overview on precisely how Strategic Irrigation Management works, and their WeFunder campaign here!

See Disclaimers Below

• Copying Each Other’s Homework – Comparing the trajectory of  Snapchat to Facebook
  
• The New Boss is In- The Head of the Secret Service is SNAP’s new Chief of Security
• The Future Just Got More Futuristic – SNAP turns to Augmented Reality

62 Calef Hwy #233 Lee, New Hampshire 03861 United States

Questions or concerns about our products? Email us at Support@ragingbull.com 
© Copyright 2022, RagingBull – Refund Policy – Privacy Policy – Terms & Conditions