Sometimes copying people is the fastest way to $8.2 Billion

Screw being original

Here is the story of 3 brothers, who are some of the best copycats the world has ever seen

A lesson in growth

> A thread <

3 brothers

Marc, Oliver and Alexander Samwer

Founded a startup studio in Germany

Called Rocket Internet

Their plan was to make copycat brands in new markets

They didn't try to reinvent the wheel, they looked for things that worked, then figured out how to replicate them in new markets

In incredibly profitable ways

Their startup studio quickly grew to 26,000 employees and IPO'd for roughly $8 billion dollars

They quickly copied brands, grew them massively, then sold them.

Many of their ventures failed, but some of the bigger ones, we undeniable successes

The boys looked at eBay and saw an amazing opportunity to bring the auction platform to a new market

Germany

They quickly created a clone called Alando and got it live to the people of Germany

The site took off and after only 100 days

The 3 brothers convinced Ebay to buy the website from them

For $38 Million dollars

But there were more examples

In 2010 they saw another opportunity with group buying sites, Groupon had become massive

They launched CityDeals in 2010 and sold it to Groupon

For the hefty fee $170 million dollars

Just five months after starting the company

In fact the copied other major brands as well

Including Pinterest - here it is below,

Pinspire

Their company has become one of the giants in the digital business world

Despite recently having some problems

Nobody can deny the success the brothers have had

Everyone says being a copycat is bad

But sometimes, if you copy the right cat? Things can be very good for you