How Venmo beat the Wall Street Banks

Name: How Venmo beat the Wall Street Banks
Uploaded: 2024-08-22T18:54:13+00:00
Duration: 57 s
Channel: Hiten Shah
Description: A short, anecdotal YouTube narration (by Hiten Shah) of Venmo’s origin and rise. Two college friends, Andrew and Ikram, conceived a music-sharing/payment…

22 Aug 2024 · 1 min

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0:57

A short, anecdotal YouTube narration (by Hiten Shah) of Venmo’s origin and rise. Two college friends, Andrew and Ikram, conceived a music-sharing/payment idea in 2009 that failed, then quickly pivoted to a social peer-to-peer payments app called Venmo after an anecdotal wallet incident. Venmo gained rapid traction among students, professionals, and some businesses. Braintree acquired Venmo in 2012 for $26 million; PayPal acquired Braintree (and Venmo) in 2013 for $800 million. The narrator states Venmo now processes "hundreds of billions" annually.

Questions this video answers

2009

Two college friends named Andrew and Ikram (named in the narration).

$26 million in 2012.

2013 for $800 million.

"Hundreds of billions" per year (as stated in the narration).

Chapters

You know Venmo, the app that makes splitting the bill easy? Well, its origin story is wild. Two college buddies, Andrew and Ikram, had this idea in 2009. Text a band, get an MP3. They built an entire payment system for it. But the music thing? Total flop. Then one weekend, Ikram crashes at Andrews and forgets his wallet. That's when it hits them. What if they could send money as easily as texting? They pivot faster than you can say peer to peer payments. They call it Venmo, make it social, and bam, it's a hit. College kids, professionals, and businesses love it. Fast forward to 2012, and Braintree, a payment processing company, acquires Venmo for $26 million. But wait, we're not done yet. In 2013, a year later, PayPal swoops in, buys Braintree and Venmo along with it for $800 million. So these days, Venmo is processing hundreds of billions yearly. And Venmo me is practically its own language. The moral of the story? Sometimes the best ideas come from solving your own problems.