Science Quote by Niklas Zennstrom

Startups love to claim theyre in the first inning, but Zennstroms line is more than bravado; its a deliberate reframing of scale. By benchmarking Skype not against other internet tools but against the entire global telephone network, he moves the goalposts so far back that even rapid adoption can be described as infancy. Its a rhetorical trick with strategic intent: investors hear runway, employees hear destiny, competitors hear a warning shot.

The subtext is about infrastructure and incumbency. Telephony is the original network effect: everyone already has it, regulators protect it, carriers monetize it. Saying were still just starting implies two things at once: first, that Skype has not yet meaningfully collided with the full weight of that system; second, that when it does, the prize is not market share but category disruption. The sentence smuggles in a big bet: voice is a commodity, and once it rides on the internet, the old tollbooth economics collapse.

Context matters. Mid-2000s Skype was exploding across borders precisely where traditional calling was expensive or unreliable. Zennstrom is signaling that usage metrics alone are misleading because the real contest is replacing a default habit, not winning a niche. Its also a subtle hedge against hype: even spectacular growth looks small next to a century-old utility. The line sells patience while promising inevitability, the classic entrepreneurs paradox.