Bolt: How a 19-year-old Estonian founder took on Uber
Lacking both money and experience, Markus Villig had to get creative to take a stab at Uber's empire.
Zuckerberg, but for Estonia
“The Social Network”, a biopic about Facebook’s inception story, is a rite of passage for a number of aspiring, young first-time founders.
The movie depicts an ambitious, visionary, and sometimes cruel Zuckerberg, flouting social norms to build out his revolutionary idea. The movie’s appeal might reside in the proof it gives high-school nerds that they, too, can be seditious, rebellious, and glorious.
As that fictional startup founder matures, they realize that Facebook’s story is a rarity. After failing their first startup, they read Ali Tamaseb’s Super Founders and discover that most respected entrepreneurs had a regular job before starting their companies. Very few unicorns are actually created out of dorm rooms.
Yet, every once in a while, a “Zuckerberg story” comes to light. And on December 17th, 1993, on a small Estonian island, the writer of one of those stories was born.