Startup Watch: The Pando explosion
This is one hot company. Pando is a little software app that lets people send any size files to each other in a super easy way. It's got the first UI that I've ever seen that makes p2p file transfers dead simple. And it might just be the tool that finally allows BitTorrent technology to break into the mainstream. They've been in a closed beta, but the app leaked out into the public and has been rapidly spreading around the world at Skype-like growth rates. They are now moving over 12 terabytes a day, and have users in more than 130 countries. All without a penny spent in marketing, and in less than 60 days. But perhaps what really sets apart this company, beyond # of downloads and active users (which btw are phenomenal), is the emotional connection these guys are generating with users. One of the co-founders of Pando is my longtime friend Yaron Samid, and he recently showed me anonymized real-time logs of user feedback: all I can say is that every company in the world would kill to have this kind of user love. Crazy positive comments from people all over the world: using the app to send big presentations to clients, sharing wedding videos, kids, adults, hackers, newbies, Europeans, Chinese, Brazilians...and even when they criticize, the criticism is positive and encouranging- the users *want* this thing to succeed. The GUI is slick and they’re also building plug-ins for the top email services and Outlook so you can simply attach files and folders (up to 1GB) to any email as you would normally. The files don’t clog your or your recipient’s inbox because Pando only sends small (~10K) “.pando” files through your email service. Clicking the “.pando” files triggers an encrypted p2p swarm delivery between you, your recipients, and Pando’s own proxies. These temporary caching proxies ensure recipients can receive files even if the sender is offline at the time (a significant limitation of IM-style transfers). If they continue growing at current rates, this company will be a monster in 6-12 months. It's going to be fascinating to see how distribution of video content evolves this year. Pando is probably just one of many innovative startups that are going to really create new opportunities in this area, and as usual, the main beneficiary in the end will be consumers like us.