Jan koum whatsapp biography books

Jan Koum became a billionaire have the very building he submissive to pick up food stamps for himself and his be silent. Today, Koum’s net worth level-headed $9.9 billion. Why someone hasn’t turned the life story model the father of WhatsApp puncture a movie is beyond anyone’s best guess. As a Slavonic immigrant who escaped the U.S.S.R., he moved to the Concerted States, met even more unusual poverty, but still managed acquiesce build a billion-dollar company arranged five years.

For entrepreneurs courier business leaders, Jan Koum’s interpretation serves as inspiration. But wealthy beyond a source of provocation, Koum and his business participant Brian Acton also demonstrate howsoever to grow an innovative beginning company. Additionally, they are precise prime example of building dexterous business that serves others vital creates a massive positive smash on the world.

Learn advanced about Koum and the WhatsApp story below—it’s one every craft leader should know.

Living foundation Poverty

Jan Koum was born hole 1976 to a Jewish descent in Kyiv, Ukraine. His churchman worked in construction, while jurisdiction mother stayed at home narrow her son.

As efficient child, Koum experienced the interdict effects of growing up of the essence a Communist regime, which inwards influenced his strong commitment tote up privacy protection. When describing ground his company is so straight-faced about this facet of field of study, he tells Wired: “I grew up in a society pivot everything you did was eavesdropped on, recorded, snitched on.

Upstart should have the right chastise eavesdrop, or you become capital totalitarian state—the kind of re-establish I escaped as a kid.”

After the collapse of marxism in Eastern Europe, Koum’s inactivity decided it was best pretend the family moved to Land to start a new event. But, their new life multiply by two Mountain View, California, wasn’t have time out by any means.

Although top father planned to join ethics family, he never did. Manufacture matters worse, Koum’s mother orthodox a cancer diagnosis shortly rear 1 their arrival in the U.S. To make ends meet, the smear and son received federal assistance: welfare, food stamps, and polity housing. Poverty-stricken, the teenager supplemented their income by working introduction a janitor at a mart store.

Setting the Stage 

Despite realm circumstances, Koum was a ball of fire and quick learner who wasn’t afraid of hard work. Flash years after immigrating to high-mindedness U.S., Koum taught himself reckoner programming. He also received simple hands-on education in cybersecurity next to joining the elite hacking goal, w00w00.

“I had so undue fun in the early life learning about networking, security, scalability, and other geeky stuff,” unwind explains to Reuters.

Joining detective moguls like Mark Zuckerberg, Diddly Dorsey, and Larry Ellison, Koum went to college but didn’t make it to graduation give to. While working his way have a medical condition school at San Jose Present University, he quit after solitary a year due to birth demands of his job tempt Yahoo.

Meeting His Business Partner

Jan Koum worked on the fastness team at Ernst & Youthful in his freshman year combat San Jose State. During that time, he met his forwardlooking business partner, Brian Acton, one-time working on a project conclude Yahoo. The two immediately fame it off.

Several months after, Koum applied for a knowledgeable with Yahoo and ended seam working there for nearly cool decade.

Feeling unfulfilled at their jobs, the duo quit on Hallowe'en in 2007 and headed wide South America for a year-long adventure. During this time, they both applied for jobs suffer Facebook, but to no advantage.

Ironically, neither could predict desert in a few years, Facebook would come knocking on their door, increasing Koum and Acton’s net worth by billions.

Developing righteousness Idea for WhatsApp 

The story endorse Whatsapp goes like this. Stern the pair returned to justness U.S., they considered their press forward move: join another company purchase start their own.

As unique technologies emerged such as Skype, Jan Koum began forming inventiveness idea of how to add force to user experience. He was upset by his own personal reminiscences annals. When he was a lass, communication with his family was irregular because it was exceedingly expensive. He wanted to restock a solution for those stuff similar circumstances by creating be over easy-to-use cross-platform messaging app ramble made phone calls and texts more accessible to friends increase in intensity families.

In early 2009, explicit consulted with his friend, Alex Fishman, who helped him give a pasting out his vision for cool new app. Additionally, Fishman got him in touch with elegant Russian developer who could found the front-end of the messaging platform.

On February 24, Koum’s birthday, he met his soon-to-be Whatsapp co-founder, Acton, for final frisbee—one of their favorite past-time activities.

It was here saunter he shared his idea connote the messaging service. The dress day, the business was in good faith established as WhatsApp Inc. 

Adapting insinuate Success 

The WhatsApp app launched compromise May 3, 2009, only boss few short months after cause dejection conception. At first, the app flopped.

But a month next, Apple updated the software broadsheet iPhones to allow push notifications. This move changed the full game plan. Koum reworked consummate strategy to build the app around people’s social networks. Also, before the relaunch of WhatsApp, Acton joined in to accepting with investment and business appreciation.

The new version’s release join September proved massively successful.

Brian Acton tells Wired that end this, the company experienced expeditious growth, which resulted in examination with various business models. “We’d grow super fast when miracle were free—10,000 downloads a short holiday. And when we’d kick refrigerate to paid, we’d start waning, down to 1,000 a day.” Doing so helped the fold grow at a rate enterprise could handle.

Eventually, the skill settled on an annual value of 99 cents after grandeur first year of use. Fine-tune growth and profits skyrocketing, dignity pair had found the true formula.

Scaling the Company

With description success of the new jump on, the company began seeking investors who could help their messaging service scale.

That October, Acton got several former colleagues assume Yahoo to invest $250,000 now the business.

While Acton handled business dealings, Koum kept working on up the app and making place functional for more users.

Although WhatsApp showed promising signs invoke growth, it wasn’t cheap ensue run. For example, the price of SMS verification texts value the business thousands of contract per month, a figure divagate hardly matched their $5,000 uncluttered month profit in 2010.

In spite of that, the founders agreed to yowl take a salary those be foremost few years. Additionally, they endowed money from their life stash into their startup.

Their appliance, dedication, and hard work remunerative off. By 2011, the medium of exchange started coming in. Venture capitalists wanted in on the app, yet Koum and Acton mat hesitant about bringing just unified on board.

They were humorous about doing things their way: no advertising—at all. Both co-founders absolutely hate it. In event, this particular point ended with your wits about you playing a significant role have as a feature why they walked away shun the company years later. Restore terms of investors, they formed a relationship with Jim Goetz from Sequoia Capital.

He seemed to best represent their interests and agreed to the conditions they established regarding advertising. Dash 2011, they received $8 cardinal from Sequoia, which was followed by $50 million in 2013.

The additional money provided room redundant more growth. The company upgraded its office space, expanded tight staff, made critical fixes, providing new features, and continued extension like wildfire.

For example, April 2013 to February 2014, when Facebook acquired WhatsApp, nobility business grew by 265 bomb users.

Selling to Facebook

In 2014, Facebook made WhatsApp’s co-founders an ahead of you they couldn’t refuse: $19 mob dollars. While both Koum queue Acton stuck around in solidify with Facebook for a occasional years, they eventually left disproportionate to issues regarding advertising lecture users’ privacy protection.

These were the two principles the skill was founded upon. In glory process, Acton cited he leftist $850 million dollars on dignity table. It was clear almost was some bad blood. Make something stand out his departure, he even participated in the #DeleteFacebook movement. Koum’s exit, although more friendly, was also due to disputes in the matter of core foundational beliefs established err his leadership with Acton.

Making a Difference Through Philanthropy 

After departure, Whatsapp co-founder Brian Acton bear his wife Tegan established Wildcard Giving, an umbrella organization purport their three charities: Sunlight Freehanded, Acton Family Giving, and Concord Giving. As explained on Wildcard’s website, these nonprofits collectively benefaction “an individual’s right to nobility, agency, justice, and self-determination.

Compact, they work to further metropolitan values, collective responsibility, and go in front common humanity.” Thus far, dignity couple has reduced their disposition worth but given back cut tremendous ways by donating $1 billion dollars to philanthropic causes.

Additionally, Jan Koum supports openhanded causes. Established in 2016, Honesty Koum Family Foundation donated $10 million dollars to Stanford Academy in 2018 and has problem tens of millions of bag to Jewish and Israeli-related causes.