The 5 Companies That Formed During the Last Financial Crisis

The last financial crisis, also known as the Great Recession, occurred during the years of 2007-08. It was the most severe economic crisis and unleashed destruction in financial markets all over the world. Started by the crumbling of the housing bubble in the US, it brought many essential businesses to the verge of a breakdown and took nearly five years for things to come back to normal. However, the Chinese writing of crisis is 危機. The two characters represent danger and opportunity. Entrepreneurs who were savvy enough launched their startups in the last economic downturn. Here is a list of 5 companies formed in the last financial crisis. 
1. WhatsApp:
The most well-known outcome of the financial crisis of 2007-08 is indeed the formation of WhatsApp. In 2009, yahoo employees, Brian Acton and Jan Koum, founded WhatsApp. They wanted individuals from all over the world to connect with each other. The start of the journey was definitely not a smooth one. With the starting staff of only fifty employees and less funding, they did face many hurdles. However, like numerous other successful businesses, they found their way through and have won over major messaging apps such as iMessage and Facebook Messenger.
2. Credit Karma:
​Ken Lin established a company known as Credit Karma during the middle of the financial crisis of 2008. It is a personal finance business related to financial technology utilizing adaptable models to annex organizations and clients through an online platform. In return for entering individual data, people can access and screen their credit reports and scores at no cost. Currently, the company has more than 250 employees. It even obtained funding of $2.5 million in November 2009 and has secured $368.5 million in overall financing.
3. Venmo:
Then college kids, Magdon-Ismail and Kortina, who met at the University of Pennsylvania, launched Venmo as an easy way for peer-to-peer money transfer. Instead of carrying cash to pay your friends, you could easily use Venmo. They were able to gain young users right away, given their popularity with the streams and the emojis in transactions. It was so successful that Paypal bought it.
4. Instagram:
Instagram was created in San Francisco by Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom in the year 2010 when the world was going through one of the gravest financial crisis of all the time. Instagram revolves around posting pictures and videos with some cool filters and effects. From the very start, the business was a huge triumph with over a million users in just two months after it was released. Currently, it has 400 employees, with more than 130 million users.
5. Cloudera:
Cloudera was created in 2008 by engineers Amr Awadallah, Christophe Bisciglia, and Jeff Hammerbacher. It is a US-based startup that gives a software platform for data engineering and analytics that operates in the cloud or on-premises. Currently, the company values more than $2 billion.
There are always opportunities in a crisis. With a pandemic and a global recession, this could be a golden opportunity hidden during this crisis for every hungry entrepreneur. Use this opportunity and hustle on! 
References:
http://www.businessmodelzoo.com/exemplars/Credit-Karma
https://www.businessinsider.com/ubers-history#april-2007-travis-kalanick-becomes-a-millionaire-at-age-30-he-sells-his-startup-called-redswoosh-to-a-cloud-company-called-akamai-for-23-million-its-the-second-companys-hes-been-involved-in-since-he-dropped-out-of-ucla-in-1998-1
https://medium.com/@obtaineudaimonia/how-instagram-started-8b907b98a767
https://thehustle.co/how-venmo-started