Question

DB 3 - Discussion Question

Search the Internet for New Business Startups, successful and not so successful from 2006 to 2014.

Provide links and discussions for at least one successful business startup and one no so successful startup.

Answer 1

One Successful Startup

Xiaomi

Valuation: $46 billion

CEO: Jun Lei

Founded: 2010

Total funding: $1.4 billion
Xiaomi managed to take the electronics and mobile world by storm in 2014. Their flagship device, Mi4 was one of the best-selling phones in history and paved the path for mid-level mobile phones and their market base.The company was founded by eight partners in the year 2010 and was funded by a Singapore based investment group called Temasek Holdings and Chinese venture capitalists called IDG Capital along with Qiming Venture Partners. They were one of the first companies that were endorsed by core mobile companies, Qualcomm. Xiaomi continues to use their processors for their devices even today.Xiaomi is being called a “Chinese phoenix.” The company has grown so fast in 2014 that research firm Strategy Analytics says Xiaomi could overtake Oppo, Huawei, and Apple in the next year to become the world’s second-largest smartphone vendor, behind Samsung.

Link: https://www.wired.com/story/behind-the-fall-and-rise-of-china-xiaomi/

One Unsuccessful Startup

Quirky

Launched in 2009, Quirky was an invention platform where people could vote on product ideas they loved, and the company would turn them into products, like the much-loved Pivot Power strip. But , the reason it failed because many of Quirky's product had thin to non-existent margins, Business Insider's Jillian D'Onfro reported. For example, the company spent nearly $400,000 on a developing a bluetooth speaker that only sold 28 units.

Money raised: $185 million from Andreessen Horowitz, GE, Kleiner Perkings, RRE Venures and Norwest Venture Partners

Link: https://www.businessinsider.in/In-memoriam-7-once-hot-startups-that-shuttered-their-doors-in-2015/Homejoy/slideshow/50179100.cms