Skype Founder Wants Startups to Show Him the Money

Lock
This article is for subscribers only.

Skype and Kazaa founder Niklas Zennstrom became famous building free Web services with scores of users and little revenue. As an investor, he shuns such ventures to buy stakes in startups with clearer business plans.

Zennstrom, 46, started his venture-capital firm Atomico in 2006 and now travels the world searching for young companies that tap into the rising popularity of smartphones and Internet shopping. He focuses on profit potential after realizing with his Kazaa video and music-sharing venture a decade ago that even a product that has 60 million users can fail as a business idea.