I never thought I’d be making a business post one day. But it looks like this is what it’s what it’s going to be. Sort of.

Those recent news, the whole snapchat thing , Wunderlist raising 19m$ with Sequoia and Stripe’s striking revenue history sparked a little debate with the Psykosoft crew(although now i think of it, it was mostly me debating with my own self).

Those apps have a thing in common. The same question comes to mind:

How could such simple shit worth so much?

Snapchat a company that worth 4 billion dollars that was created only 2 years ago by a 23 years old kid/guy. That’s something that could make someone feel like the world became totally mundane. It could also make you feel crap about yourself for being 30 while a dude is stealing everyone’s lunch with something that appears at first like silly and simplistic.

Without trying to say whether it’s good or bad, fair or not (which everyone can have its own idea), this is my attempt at understanding what’s happening.

Those services are all in the business of less.

None of them reinvented the wheel.

1. Snapchat : The easiest way to share a photo for which you don’t really have worry about their stupidity or having a bad face because it will disappear forever.
2. Stripe: What Paypal is doing without sucking.
3. Wunderlist : A very simple todo list that looks good and doesn’t suck.

What all those are all digital services have in common is making things easy. Removing friction to do something.

1. Snapchat:

Before Snapchat one would be kind of worried to share a silly selfie because it would always stay online and would give the opportunity for anyone to laugh at your face forever and create a meme out of your duck face. In effect it REMOVED that worry out of your mind, which allowed you to share MORE.

Compare it to Instagram. There were lots of photo sharing apps before. There was also a bunch of photo filters app as well (remember Hipstamatic anyone?)

It’s the combination that made the magic. Suddenly you would feel less guilty about sharing photos because those were not looking crap and they had an artistic intent. With a filter they were cool.

So it’s not like “I want to brag that I’m at a much better place than you right now and that my life is much more exiting than yours”. No. It’s just sharing beautiful things ;-) x3

In effect Instagram REMOVED that shame that your photos didn’t look good enough. Allowing you to share MORE.

Instagram was also removing the friction of sharing, since you take the photo and share it in one step. Snapchat is even more efficient in that regard. Even LESS steps and LESS guilt.

2. Stripe

Stripe is doing exactly what Paypal should be doing. Paypal solved a big pain point back in the day. How to make is easy to send and receive payment online. At that time it was pretty difficult, I guess you could connect via email then sends checks and make sure it’s fine, or share your bank details then go to the bank etc… But that would be freaking slow and hard. Paypal REMOVED all the steps that it took to send money.

But 10/15 years later Paypal’s interface barely evolved. While usability standards on the web dramatically increased. Paypal’s developer API is really clunky and complicated. Too many details to setup and it does all sort of things which you don’t need. Like asking you to register with a Paypal account when a customer just want to pay with its card. Or A huge documentation about which does what, and you have to show you’re legit in 3 different ways before accepting payments, list goes on…

Stripe actually REMOVED (or stripped) all those useless features and details. Developers can set it up way faster, it’s much easier for them, and also the customer experience is much simpler and easier to understand.

That’s why Stripe is eating Paypal’s lunch and will continue to do so.

By doing less and making it easier they add a lot of value.

3. Wunderlist

This is just a freaking TODO list! That’s all that it is. There are tons of todo lists out there. What’s so special about that one?

First I think it looks great but also if you check it you would notice it’s very stripped out.

Instead of clicking on a button to create a new item, you just type it in the field, press enter and that’s it. Most todo lists would ask you to click on a “Create” button Then on the input field that would appear, Then type something and Then press the submit button.

Here it’s actually saving you 1 or 2 clicks. That’s all it does. It REMOVED 1 or 2 clicks. And this is how it added value.

Summary:

This is what all those have in common, they make things easier, simpler faster by removing steps. That’s why this blog post is called the business of less. Let’s not underestimate how lazy we are and how much we don’t like to waste time.

We could expand that idea to a lot of very successful services. Google made it much simpler/easier/faster to find what you’re looking for. Yahoo did the same thing before when there was a lot of websites and they decided they would curate the best to save you time.

Actually the tool I’m using to write this post is a great example of removing friction in writing. Trying to eat some of Tumblr’s lunch which is one of the easiest way (until something better comes along) to share a blog story.

But before I talk more about why it is. Here’s the mighty blogging history:

In 1990s the way to share content on the web was to know HTML, setup a web server, host it, get the bandwidth etc… Early blogs were simply manually updated web pages.

Late 1990s you could share your opinion on BBs. But someone had to install a server with PHP and mySQL and find a host etc… At least you didn’t had to know HTML and code the layout. It REMOVED that part.

Early 2000s: Stuff like blogger came along. Your blog is hosted somewhere else. It REMOVED the need to have to install a web server.

Finally late 2000s: Tumblr made it much easier to create a new blog and add new posts. If you compare it to Wordpress or Blogger, it does much less. It REMOVED all the unnecessary steps. You have big icons, you don’t have to think too much, you know what to do. Sign up cost one click then you’re ready to post. You can also repost stuff easily, just curate, not even create, etc… For lazy people it’s great.

Alright, I could go on and on to prove that point, you got the idea already. I think those massively successful services that appear simplistic wins because they don’t do more things for you:

They make it easier for you to do the things you want to do by removing fears, steps, time… or whatever gets in the way.

End of transmission.