Monday, November 14, 2016

Doing the Unconventional

At age 11, he taught himself how to code. At age 15, he dropped out of high school with the support of his parents. Now at 30, David Karp is the Founder and CEO of the billion dollar empire, Tumblr.

Launched in February 2007, Tumblr is a short-form blogging platform, somewhere in between Twitter, Facebook and Wordpress. Aimed to create a space to publish content for those who don’t enjoy or have the leisure for conventional forms of blogging, Tumblr allows users to curate pictures, videos and texts in one single place. Offering users endless ways to personalize their online home, it soon attracted a huge fan base of those who wanted to express their creativity. However, Tumblr has not always been smooth sailing. Set on escaping the traditional investor-funded model, the start-up experienced user growth rapidly yet struggled to scale up due to a lack of investors. Immediately after selling 25% of his company during the first round of funding, Karp went from being able to see everyone’s computer screen in its New York office to now having a two floor workspace with over 393 employees.

Despite being one of the most successful technology firms, Karp is relaxed about the company’s growth. Tumblr held off from being acquired by media firms until 2013, when it reached an agreement with Yahoo for $1.1 billion in cash. Determined to not follow the predictable path of a start-up company, , Karp has remained CEO and the company is unlikely to relocate to the West Coast in the interest of retaining their start-up spirit. From a technology firm that lacked a traditional business model to now a network with big name users such as President Obama, Tumblr is truly a story of doing the unconventional.  

No comments:

Post a Comment