Skype Co-Founder Reflects on Past Success

Previous VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) solutions did not work then at all. We identified that there were two problems, research and user experience.

We found out that peer-to-peer innovation was the solution to the research problem. We had the best peer-to-peer innovation experience in the world from Kazaa. When we designed the user experience we tested the prototypes on sisters, wives ands even mums to make sure it was easy to use.

We had perfect timing, we launched Skype for a broadband world, so we utilized high definition audio earlier anyone else.

Venture capitalist at Atomico

Today as a venture capitalist at Atomico, these are some of the characteristics we look for in companies: entrepreneurs with global ambitions to become category winners, unparalleled transformational products or business models, large markets in transition and when all is said and done the right timing.

Q. You as well launched the online video service Joost in 2006. There is a growing interest in Internet video content from sites just as Hulu, for instance. Why do you think it is so challenging to make these products profitable even though?

Video is moving online in a big way. It's proven to be a challenging market for some companies that start out as a pure Internet company just as Joost.

Some Internet operators are concerned that video services just as Netflix and YouTube consume lots of the bandwidth on the network. During there is some truth to this, my guess is that the operators wished they could provide the same kind of services with the same success as Netflix and YouTube.