workers earlier this year, as part of cost-cutting measures meant to generate positive cash flow by the end of 2022.active customers — a lot, but less than half of its 54 million customers in 2014.Mobile payments platform Venmo launched in 2009 at the tail end of the recession, inspired by a moment of forgetfulness from co-founder Iqram Magdon-Ismail: He left his wallet at home before visiting his college friend and future co-founder, Andrew Kortina.
The two friends had already discussed how helpful it would be to transfer funds to acquaintances with a mobile app connected to your bank account. Magdon-Ismail's mishap cemented the idea in their minds.Even today, the app is a tool associated with fiscal responsibility. In 2018, PayPal CEO Dan Schulmanthat he's seen Venmo help people who grew up during the Great Recession become more thoughtful about taking care of their money.
"It's very important to them if they have their own independence, and these apps like Venmo are incredibly powerful in helping and empowering them to take care of their financial health," Schulman said.When Brian Acton and Jan Koum founded popular messaging service WhatsApp in February 2009, they probably weren't inspired by the recession — but they were well aware of the ups and downs of the market.when the dotcom bubble burst in 2000.
Initially, WhatsApp gave you status updates for the people listed in your phone's contact list. Those early iterations of the app kept crashing and proved unpopular with their friends, so Koum and Acton remade WhatsApp as an instant-messaging service. In 2014, Facebook acquired WhatsApp for $19 billion, turning Koum and Acton into billionaires. The pair continued running WhatsApp until 2018, when they left amid disagreements with Facebook over digital advertising on the platform.