One of the founders of Skype says working for this German internet company is better than working at Goldman Sachs

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Niklas Zennström skype atomico

Atomico

Niklas Zennström, founding partner and CEO of Atomico.

Skype cofounder Niklas Zennström says that spending two years working for German startup accelerator Rocket Internet is far more valuable than working at Goldman Sachs.

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Zennström, speaking at the Startup Grind Europe conference in London on Wednesday, said that Rocket Internet has trained entrepreneurs over the years as it invested in technology companies and helped them scale.

"I think that's great," Zennström said. "Working at Rocket [Internet] is better than working at Goldman Sachs for two years."

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After leaving Skype, Zennström became a technology investor, founding VC fund Atomico in 2006.

Zennström says that "Rocket [Internet] is a one-off phenomenon. they're executing like nobody else. They're focused very much on emerging markets."

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Rocket Internet was founded by brothers Marc, Oliver and Alexander Samwer in 2007. The company started off by copying the strategies of successful American technology companies and bringing them to Europe. The New York Times called Rocket Internet's early strategy a "copycat business model."

But in recent years Rocket Internet has moved away from copying US companies to building homegrown talent. It went public in 2014 and was valued at €6.5 billion (£5.1 billion).

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