Threema apps are Open Source
Ah Threema. Threema is a perfect example of why successful global startups can't happen in Switzerland today<p>Apologies upfront to anyone at Threema reading this but I have rant a little (PS: I live in Switzerland although I have no connection to Threema)...<p>Threema was launched in 2013 ( <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threema#History" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threema#History</a> ), 4 years after WhatsApp. Threema was always a paid app who's USP was security. After WhatsApp was bought by Facebook in 2014, Threema dominated the paid iOS app listings in the the German speaking world (posted about that before here - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18840587" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18840587</a> ) showing a significant minority care about their privacy and are willing to pay for it.<p>Given this strong signal from it's user, you'd think Threema would realise there's a huge opportunity to become a leading app in messaging... Sadly not. In fact Threema coasted, allowing Signal to launch an iOS app in 2014 ( <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_(software)#History" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_(software)#History</a> ) and basically come from "zero" to "the app" for people that care about their privacy. Meanwhile Threema seemed to decide enterprise was the future in 2016 ( <a href="https://threema.ch/en/blog/posts/threema-for-organizations-threema-work" rel="nofollow">https://threema.ch/en/blog/posts/threema-for-organizations-t...</a> ) ... perhaps inspired by Slack that had launched in 2013 and already had traction?<p>Seen from a distance, Threema had every opportunity to become a major player in messaging but failed to do so. Why? I'm guessing because the founders lacked the experience or the right people to guide them from startup into massive growth. The market told them they had a product / market fit. The next stage was product / channel fit and them pour in the marketing dollars for real growth, but sadly Switzerland lacks the people with that kind of experience. There are few that even have the experience of growing a company from 10 to 100 employees...<p>In the last 10 years Switzerland has become a great place to launch tech startups, with the ETH and EPFL plus Google and others having engineering offices here. But sadly from there what's lacking is people with the experience growing startups. That needs to change...