Rocket Internet's Market Cloning
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A story about how Rocket Internet, founded by three brothers, systematically cloned successful US companies in international markets.
"Rocket Internet was started by three brothers named Ali, Alex, and another brother. They had this guy who was their chief scientist, and what they would do is research fast-growing companies in America and clone them, deploying these clones in Africa, Asia, and different parts of Europe.
They cloned Uber for Mexico, Pinterest for Germany, Zappos for Germany, and Amazon for Thailand and Brazil. They'd do things like create the Wayfair for Nigeria. The chief scientist would send an email every day to all their clone companies - there were probably about 8 clones - with very specific instructions.
He'd say things like 'Hey everyone, Amazon just moved their clothing section on their homepage 100 pixels to the left. It probably means clothing is more popular than furniture now, so make sure you move your clothing thing.' Or 'They changed their button color from this yellow to this orange, go ahead and do that.'
They became a large publicly traded company by essentially being systematic copycats, taking successful US business models and replicating them in emerging markets."
Sam Parr
Host of MFM and fitness influencer
Sam Parr is a serial entrepreneur and business media pioneer.
In 2016, he founded The Hustle, a business news media company that started in his kitchen with just $12 and grew to eight figures in revenue.
Sam led the charge in making newsletters popular when few believed in their potential.
After four successful years, he sold The Hustle to HubSpot, a publicly traded company. Now operating as HubSpot Media, The Hustle reaches 3 million readers daily, employs a team of nearly 100, and has been the launchpad for dozens of its staff to found their own media companies and newsletters.
Sam remains the host of the popular business podcast, My First Million, and continues to start and sell companies. He also co-founded Hampton, a highly vetted community for entrepreneurs, founders, and CEOs, and teaches people to write better through his platform, Copy That.