Niklas Zennstrom Quotations

Surround yourself with smart, dedicated people - to build something isn't a one-man show. It's more important to have smart people who really believe in what you're doing than really experienced people who may not share your dream.

Angry Birds is one of the fastest-growing online products I've seen, growing even faster than Skype, and the company has done a brilliant job of extending it across different platforms and merchandise.

Skype is easy enough to use so that people don't need to be tech savvy - a lot of users just want to communicate with their friends and family, and they find this is the easiest, cheapest way.

I try not to dwell on big mistakes but to move on when I make a mistake. I make mistakes most of the times and that's part of the risk profile being an entrepreneur. I guess one big mistake I did was not to start my own company earlier. I spent nine years working for others before starting Kazaa in 2000.

You shouldn't be afraid of failure - when something fails, you think, 'What did I learn from that experience? I can do better next time.' Then kill that project and move on to the next. Don't get disappointed.

When we started Skype, if you look at analyst reports, no one forecasted it as a big business. Also when Google started, it was not fashionable to be in search. It's not trying to do the obvious - that's the hard part.

If you can use a Web browser, you can use Skype.

We also have a conference call feature where up to five people can talk on one Skype call.

Some Internet operators are concerned that video services such as Netflix and YouTube consume lots of the bandwidth on the network. While 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.

If you want to be an entrepreneur, it's not a job, it's a lifestyle. It defines you. Forget about vacations, about going home at 6 pm - last thing at night you'll send emails, first thing in the morning you'll read emails, and you'll wake up in the middle of the night. But it's hugely rewarding as you're fulfilling something for yourself.

The telephone is a 100-year-old technology. It's time for a change. Charging for phone calls is something you did last century.

I hope that my investment into Atomico will become my best financial investment to date.

People need to access Skype wirelessly, no matter where they are, and what happens is that we'll be taking advantage of the rollout of Internet everywhere - WiFi and WiMax in particular.

Then people started using it more and more and it became the most downloaded software on the internet.

When we look at investing, we always think about 'how defensible is this, how likely is it that somebody is going to copy this.' E-commerce tends to be something easy to copy because it's execution.

Today as an entrepreneur you have more options.

If you could utilize the resources of the end users' computers, you could do things much more efficiently.

Silicon Valley is the best place to start a tech company in so many ways.

The thing about the Internet is the openness. People can link to each other themselves.

As an entrepreneur, if you're the originator, you need to be faster than ever.

With our work at Kazaa, we began seeing growing broadband connections and more powerful computers and more streaming multimedia, and we saw that the traditional way of communicating by phone no longer made a lot of sense.

And the VCR did the same thing: the movie industry thought nobody would ever watch movies any more.

Skype is for any individual who has a broadband Internet connection.

Talent can pop up anywhere in the world, it's not just one city block,

Look for when the environment is changing - the big shift now is mobile Internet. It's really happening big-time. The way you interact with services on a smart phone compared to the Web is quite different, so there's a huge opportunity.

What we are doing is taking advantage of the broadband Internet to provide basically unlimited free calls to anyone at a higher voice quality than they can with the phone lines.

It's extremely hard to build a company with a product that everyone loves, is free and has no business model, and then to innovate a business model. I did that with Kazaa, had half a billion downloads but that wasn't a sustainable business.

The next Google or Facebook will come from somewhere other than Silicon Valley.

They also can combine voice with instant messaging and online file sharing.

In fact, we just surpassed our first 1 million simultaneous users online.

Another differentiator is that Skype is free and simple to set up, and it costs us virtually nothing for a new user to join the Skype network, which is why we can offer the service for free.

As an investor, what we're not looking for is 'oh this is a cool app,' it's 'is this something that can become a big business?' You need to find those that can become real businesses.

It is very similar to companies like Google and other internet companies. When you go and search on Google you don't pay for that. But sometimes you click on an advert and Google makes money on that.

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 such as Joost.

We have just started, and if you compare the number of people using Skype to the number using a telephone network around the world, we're still just starting.

When a business becomes successful seemingly overnight, no one knows about all the months and years you've invested, all the projects you've tried before that didn't work.

When radio stations started playing music the record companies started suing radio stations. They thought now that people could listen to music for free, who would want to buy a record in a record shop? But I think we all agree that radio stations are good stuff.

You have 1 billion people using the Internet with 200 million of those now using broadband internet connections, so the Internet has become a powerful network. It can carry calls.

Until now, we've been primarily focused on PCs. But our customers want a more ubiquitous experience. And, with a service for mobile phones, we plan to deliver this.

With the release of our new software, it's never been easier for people to talk to one another for free, and now they can see each other with video as well.

There are different rumors every day. We don't comment on rumors. When we make deals, we announce them.

We want to make talking over the Internet the most natural, simple thing for people all over the world to do - no matter which computer they use.

revolutionize the ease with which people can communicate through the Internet.

But that technology enabled the movie industry to make much more revenue. The single largest revenue source for the movie industry is videos.

China is one of our absolutely top markets; it is a big growth market for broadband,

Yes the calls are free. But you're paying for the mobile access and that drives usage and something that drives usage is good for the operators.

We have a much higher penetration in countries like Brazil and Poland, where phone rates are high and service is hit or miss in some places.

We don't have any launch dates yet for any of those platforms. It's going to be wonderful to be able to make a Skype call from cell phones or PDAs.

Tom had implemented a text filter, which is what everyone else in that market is doing. Those are the regulations.

We were founded on Aug. 29, 2003, and now have 70 employees, about half in London and half in Tallinn, Estonia, and some in Luxembourg.

We have 2 million users in the U.S. and about 13 million worldwide in more than 200 countries. We're getting 80,000 new users each day. And more than half a million people are connected via Skype at any given moment.

At no charge, if they both have the software installed. Or by using SkypeOut if they need to call a land line or mobile at low rates.

People do business in Sweden and it goes well; they may try launching the product in Denmark instead of considering a global business plan. On the financing side, VCs require too much downside protection and are not willing enough to take risks.

They are technology freaks and not the kind of guys who seek publicity, but a Vanity Fair shoot in Cannes gives them a broader appeal. We drink beer in the Electric and play pool at the Elbow Room.

It was more a technical proof of concept that it was possible to transfer files between two end users rather than going through servers.

Skype to Skype lets you call anyone else in the world who has downloaded the Skype application on their computer or PDA, for free.

At the office, we actually don't have a land phone line. We use Skype mostly, and mobile phones to receive calls from people not on Skype.

I'm convinced over time, all voice communication will migrate to the Internet.

International markets are much bigger than the U.S. In Sweden we have 9 million inhabitants, and if you're successful in Sweden, you're not successful - it's such a small market.

We have 2 million users in the U.S. and about 13 million worldwide in more than 200 countries. We're getting 80,000 new users each day. And more than half a million people are connected via Skype at any given moment.

International markets are much bigger than the U.S. In Sweden we have 9 million inhabitants, and if you're successful in Sweden, you're not successful - it's such a small market.

The Chinese market is very, very unique.

If you want to be an entrepreneur, it's not a job, it's a lifestyle.

Today, over one million people now make their living on eBay, which is astounding.