Founder dilemmas · The classics
What would you have done?
Eight moments that could have ended famous companies. Pick what you'd do, then see what the founders actually did.
8 rounds · about 3 minutes · one tap each
Real moments from famous companies. Pick what you'd do, then see the call the founders actually made.
- Zappos
- Dropbox
- Spanx
- Airbnb
- Slack
- Mailchimp
- Netflix
All 8 stories and what really happened (spoilers)
Zappos, 1999
The situation: You think people will buy shoes on the internet. Everyone says nobody buys shoes without trying them on. You have no stock and no money to buy any.
What they did: Nick Swinmurn photographed shoes in local shops and posted them online. When an order came in, he went back, paid full price and shipped them himself. It proved people would buy. Amazon bought Zappos in 2009 for about $1.2 billion.
Source: Alexander Jarvis
Dropbox, 2007
The situation: Your file-syncing product isn't finished, and building it properly will take a year. You need proof people want it before you commit that year.
What they did: Drew Houston posted a demo video of how Dropbox would work. The waitlist went from about 5,000 to 75,000 in a single day. The product launched a year later.
Source: Alexander Jarvis
Burbn, later Instagram, 2010
The situation: Your app does check-ins, plans, points and photos. Testers say it looks nice but they can't tell what it's for. The one thing they keep using is the photos.
What they did: Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger stripped Burbn back to photos, likes and comments and renamed it Instagram. About 25,000 people joined on day one and a million within two months. Facebook bought it in 2012 for $1 billion.
Source: Business Insider, FourWeekMBA
Spanx, 2000
The situation: You've got one meeting with a buyer at a major department store for your new shapewear. She's polite, but the samples on the table aren't landing.
What they did: Sara Blakely took the buyer to the restroom and showed her the difference in person. Spanx went into seven Neiman Marcus stores. In 2021 the company was valued at $1.2 billion.
Airbnb, 2008
The situation: Your travel startup has maxed out several credit cards. Investors keep saying no. The US presidential election is all anyone talks about.
What they did: The founders designed "Obama O's" and "Cap'n McCain's" cereal boxes and sold them for $40 each. It raised about $30,000 and kept Airbnb alive.
Source: Sam Sawyer, Mixergy
Tiny Speck, later Slack, 2012
The situation: Your online game isn't growing and you've decided to close it. There's some investor money left. Your team built a small chat tool to work together, and everyone loves it.
What they did: Stewart Butterfield's team turned that chat tool into Slack. A few months after launch it had about 60,000 daily users and 15,000 paid seats.
Source: TechCrunch
Mailchimp, 2000s
The situation: Your email marketing company is profitable and growing. Venture capitalists keep calling, and everyone says you need funding to scale.
What they did: Mailchimp never took venture money. In 2021 Intuit bought it for $12 billion, one of the biggest sales ever for a company that grew without investors.
Source: Axios
Netflix, 2000
The situation: Your DVD-by-mail business is losing money. You offer to sell it to the biggest video rental chain in the country for $50 million. They laugh you out of the room.
What they did: Blockbuster turned Netflix down. Netflix kept building and is now worth over $150 billion. Blockbuster went from 9,000 stores to one.
Source: Fortune