Some of the notable startups founded by siblings are Stripe, myYearbook, Slideshare, iLike, Triggit, Paperless Post, NetSpend, DailyDeal, etc.
List of Notable Startups Founded by Siblings
- Stripe
- MyYearBook (MeetMe)
- Slideshare
- iLike
- Paperless Post
- NetSpend
- DailyDeal
1. Stripe
This startup was founded by two brothers named Patrick Collison and John Collison in 2010. This is a San Francisco, California, United States-based startup, and basically, it is an online payment processing platform. It offers APIs-powered payment and commerce solutions for small businesses. This startup is dual-headquartered in South San Francisco, United States, and Dublin, Ireland. Business owners can use Stripe’s APIs to integrate payment processing into their websites and mobile applications. Since its establishment, Stripe has received lots of funding from investors. Some key funding of Stripe is –
| Date | Funding Type | Number of Investors | Money Raised | Lead Investor |
| Aug 2, 2010 Mar 28, 2011 Feb 9, 2012 Jul 9, 2012 Jan 22, 2014 Dec 2, 2014 Jul 31, 2015 Nov 25, 2016 Sep 27, 2018 Jan 29, 2019 Sep 19, 2019 Apr 16, 2020 Mar 14, 2021 | Seed Round Seed Round Series A Series B Series C Series C Series C Series D Series E Series F Series G Series G Extension Series H | 1 5 1 9 4 7 7 3 5 1 3+ 3+ 3+ | — $2M $18M $20M $80M $70M $100M $150M $245M $100M $250M $600M $600M | Y Combinator Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Sequoia Capital, Sequoia Capital General Catalyst Founders Fund Thrive Capital — CapitalG, General Catalyst Tiger Global Management Tiger Global Management Sequoia Capital, General Catalyst Sequoia Capital, General Catalyst, GV Insurers Allianz SE and AXA SA |
2. MyYearBook (MeetMe)
Founded by two siblings Catherine Cook, and David Cook in 2005, MyYearBook was like a social networking website. The design of the website was quite similar to a yearbook. On this site, you would able to vote for superlatives, “sign” your friends’ yearbooks, and much more. Within 9 months of establishing this social website, it reached one million users. In 2008, MyYearBook was one of the top 15 websites on the internet. In 2011, the siblings sold the startup for 100 million to the Latino social networking site Quepasa. In 2012, MyYearBook was combined with Quepasa and renamed MeetMe.
3. Slideshare
Slideshare is a very popular platform where students and professionals can share and get access to millions of presentations. This startup was founded by siblings Rashmi Sinha and Amit Ranjan on October 4, 2006. The main idea behind this startup was to offer a platform for businesses to share their slides. But, now it has become a hosting service for professional content like presentations, infographics, documents, videos, etc. In Slideshare, you can upload files privately or publicly. It supports PowerPoint, Word, PDF, or OpenDocument formats. In 2012, Slideshare was acquired by LinkedIn. However, in 2020 Slideshare was again acquired by Scribd.
Key Information of Slideshare
| Company Name | Slideshare |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California |
| Industry | Slide hosting service |
| Company Type | Private |
| Ticker | N/A |
| Active Users | 789 million |
| Employees | 50+ |
4. iLike
This startup was founded by two siblings Ali Partovi and Hadi Partovi. iLike was an online platform where users were able to download and share music. This platform used a sidebar that was used by Apple’s iTunes or Microsoft’s Windows Media Player. Though Sidebar was not mandatory for listening to music but it was required for discovering new artists. iLike had more than 60 million registered users. In 2008, Apple was in talks with iLike to acquire it. But the negotiation was not successful. Then in, 2009, iLike was acquired by MySpace. However, since February 7, 2012, the iLike website has been shut down.
5. Paperless Post
This is another successful startup that was established by two siblings named James Hirschfeld and Alexa Hirschfeld. Basically, Paperless Post is an e-commerce company and it was first launched in 2008. This eCommerce platform sells online and printed stationery. It works with renowned designers like Kate Spade in New York to produce original work. From paperless posts, you can order cards, flyers, etc. You can also choose from various designer collections that include –
- Anita Dongre
- Anthropologie
- Ashley G
- Bernard Maisner
- Brock Collection
- Cabana
- Carolina Herrera
- Cheree Berry Paper & Design
- CONFETTISYSTEM
- Coral & Tusk
- Crane & Co.
- Derek Blasberg
- Felix Doolittle
- Gray Malin
- Happy Menocal
- Hello!Lucky
- John Derian
- Jonathan Adler
- kate spade new york
- Kelly Wearstler
- Ladurée
- Liberty
- Linda and Harriett
- Little Cube
- Marimekko
- Mary Katrantzou
- Meri Meri
- Mr. Boddington’s Studio
- Nathalie Lété
- Oscar de la Renta
- Paddington Bear
- Paper Source
- Petit Collage
- Putnam & Putnam
- Red Cap Cards
- Rifle Paper Co.
- Schumacher
- Sesame Street
- Stephanie Fishwick
- Sugar Paper
- The Indigo Bunting
- Vashti Harrison
6. NetSpend
Founded in 1999, by two siblings Roy Sosa and Bertrand Sosa, NetSpend offers mobile banking and financial service. In fact, NetSpend offers FDIC-insured Visa Prepaid, Prepaid MasterCard, and various corporate prepaid card solutions to businesses. The founder of this startup, Sosa’s siblings has emigrated to the U.S. from Mexico. They established NetSpend with the idea to help and offer poor immigrants financial and banking services. You can buy NetSpend cards from 30,000 locations, including grocery stores. You will be surprised to know that the Sosa brothers sold NetSpend to Capital One for $700 million.
7. DailyDeal
This is another successful startup that was founded by two brothers Ferry and Fabian Heilemann. DailyDeal is a type of eCommerce platform that offers various deals and discounts. The deals and discounts change every day. So, if you want to buy high-quality products at a discount price then DailyDeal will be the best option for you. In 2009, DailyDeal was founded by the Heilemann brothers and currently, it is Europe’s leading daily discount online shopping platform. From DailyDeal, you can buy products of all categories including beauty, lifestyle, leisure, spa, clothes, flights, events, and many more.
References:
https://www.businessinsider.com/sibling-cofounders-2011-7
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stripe,_Inc.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Meet_Group
https://www.paperlesspost.com/partners
Last Updated on December 25, 2023 by Magalie D.
Magalie D. is a Diploma holder in Public Administration & Management from McGill University of Canada. She shares management tips here in MGTBlog when she has nothing to do and gets some free time after working in a multinational company at Toronto.
