Blinkist, a subscription service that summarises books, may have its headquarters in Berlin. Established in 2012 by Holger Seim, Niklas Jansen, Sebastian Klein, and Tobias Balling, it now has 18 million users as of 2021. More than 5,000 of the most popular nonfiction books are summarised in 15 minutes each, in what are called Blinks. The synopses are offered in both English and German. Blinkist's competitors include, but are not limited to: Sumizeit, BUUK App, Booknotes, Snapreads, ReadingIQ, getAbstract, Instaread, BookRags, and Quiddity.
Founders
Eight years ago, a group of four friends came up with the idea to create a reading app. This helpful resource allowed users to watch brief (15 minute) summaries of best-selling nonfiction books, allowing them to catch up on reading or explore new genres with ease. They had no idea that this would inspire a new generation to make time for education by downloading the app in the millions. The pioneer of this movement, which came to be known as "micro-learning," was the startup Blinkist.
In 2010, founders were graduating college and entering the workforce for the first time. While we were overjoyed with our new jobs, they couldn't help but miss the intellectual stimulation of college. they didn't want the fact that we didn't have much free time to read to prevent us from learning new things and broadening our perspectives. The original inspiration for the founders came from the One of the creators of Blinkist, Sebastian Klein, had the concept after realising that his busy job schedule left him with little time for reading. He and his three pals pondered solutions, considering how to quicken the pace of reading itself because they couldn't improve their own reading speed. They came up with the brilliant idea of making an app that would provide 15-minute synopses of the top nonfiction books in the world. Due to the availability of reputable information at any time and place, education is never sacrificed.
In 2012, founders created the Blinkist app, which gives summaries of nonfiction books in the form of short, digestible reads, with the intention of keeping oneself attentive and open to new ideas and ideologies. Since we first started developing the app with just four individuals, our team size has ballooned to over 160 employees, and our primary focus has shifted from text to sound. We've reached over 17 million users throughout the globe, and we're continuing to grow in all of our most important markets. In a world overflowing with information, Blinkist streamlines the process of finding and understanding insightful concepts. More people will be able to learn new things and improve their abilities as a result of this.
Creativity Challenge
The first sales pitch for Blinkist was compelling: "Interested, yet short on reading time?" Discover the essence of fantastic nonfiction books in as little as 15 minutes. Totally informative, with no unnecessary blather added in. Millions of individuals, for various reasons, were interested in this because they wanted to learn more in less time. However, after a few years, Blinkist had undergone significant changes, and the once-sharp elevator pitch was far less effective. The first pitch for Blinkist was compelling: "Interested, yet short on reading time?" Discover the essence of fantastic nonfiction books in as little as 15 minutes. Totally informative, with no unnecessary blather added in. Millions of individuals, for various reasons, were interested in this because they wanted to learn more in less time. However, after a few years, Blinkist had undergone significant changes, and the once-sharp elevator pitch was far less effective.
Internal shift is needed on management due to company have internal challenge. Unclear value proposition & positioning resulted in product on the road to losing its point of view, Declining product quality caused by added more complex and confusing product experience like audiobook and summaries, Losing sight on who is the customer due to lack of clarity about the people company were now building for and why, negative customer feedback due to confusion and frustration from customers about the addition of certain formats.In addition to the changes we were making to the app internally, changes were happening in the world around us. Covid-19 had entered the picture, altering the lifestyles of our consumers in a major way.
These internal changes coupled with unforeseen external forces meant we quickly needed to understand what made Blinkist relevant today, which problems it solved and for whom. We lacked a compelling reason for what we were doing and were missing a clear direction that would inspire our product teams.
Revolutionize Reading Books
Millions of individuals have used Blinkist to improve their literacy and learn more about interesting, important, and thought-provoking subjects in a short amount of time. Whether it's classics like The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People or contemporary must-reads like Thinking, Fast and Slow, today's students are more equipped than ever to absorb knowledge from a wider variety of sources. Executives at the top of their fields, working parents, and world-renowned scholars all use Blinkist to stay on top of their reading lists.
Learning on the go has never been simpler thanks to audio content, which can be listened to while doing other things like exercising, walking the dog, or driving. Spending time with Blinkist is time well spent no matter where you are.
They came up with the idea of creating an app that would have 15-minute summaries of the top nonfiction books in the world. Learning is always a top priority with it, regardless of where or when one might be, because reliable resources are always within reach.
Quality Control
Key takeaways from founder’s when it come to hiring blinkister: We look for people aligned with our mission: to inspire people to learn and grow by making big ideas easy to discover and understand.
We find that when people are really passionate about the mission, then they are extremely motivated and engaged team members.
Our team is also constantly learning new things: we have in-house dedicated days for learning when people can concentrate on one topic that they want to learn about and our team members also run frequent micro-learning sessions to share with the wider team — for example, how to build the best skincare routine or how to supercharge your instant ramen. At the core, we’re a team of people passionate about sharing ideas and helping people to improve their lives.
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