Five Inspirational Young Self-Made Tech Millionaires
Technology has brought immense advancement to our civilizations as a whole. It also gave a chance to budding entrepreneurs with brilliant ideas a launchpad to take their dreams to the skies. Here is a list of some of these individuals, who in a small period of time have used their intellect to not just make some of the most interesting and innovative tech products but got rich doing it.
These self-made richies are also an inspiration in times when young people constantly fear their upward mobility is being hindered by businesses. So if you have an idea that you are passionate about, just start working on it, maybe the next time we make a list, you might be in listed in.
1. Mark Zuckerberg
Age: 29
Net Worth: $28.5 billion
So let’s start this list with this famous or for some, infamous billionaire. There would hardly be a person who won’t know this guy. With his social network Facebook becoming the indomitable social network which turned 10 this year the Zuckman is on his lifetime high right now. He is also known for ferocious takeovers of start-ups. Just this year itself his company has acquired Whatsapp and Oculus in Billion dollar plus deals. He is also a philanthropist who has signed the Giving Pledge, thereby committing to pay over half of his fortunes in charity.
2. Blake Ross
Age: 29
Net Worth: $150 million
The co-founder of the third most used web browser in the world truly deserves his fortune. The open source browser has grown phenomenally over the 11 years of its existence. The browser currently has over 450 million users. Blake was in high school when he had started working on the Firefox. At age 14 he started working on Netscape. So if you are in high school and need an inspiring figure, this man should be it. He is responsible for giving a true alternative to folks frustrated by Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and turning it into a browser that people used to download Firefox. He also worked with Facebook from 2007 to 2013 as the Director of Product.
3. Matthew Mullenweg
Age : 30
Net Worth: $40 Million
A lot of people need to thank this Texan for giving a phenomenal web tool called WordPress. The idea behind WordPress was to provide a blogging platform, but quickly it became a content management system which most websites, including the popular ones have begun using. Mullenweg attended the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts where he studied jazz saxophone. Mullenweg is also a Dvorak Keyboard user and can type over 120wpm.
4. Drew Houston
Age: 31
Net Worth: $1.2 Billion
Dropbox is one of the most popular and fastest growing cloud services. Its founder Drew Houston is as versatile as his Cloud tool. He holds a degree from MIT and has worked with multiple start-ups like Bit9, Accolade and Hubspot. The service initially took assistance from Y Combinator‘, who might consider it their best investment yet. Drew is also politically active and is one of the founders of a lobbying group called FWD.us (aimed at lobbying for immigration reform and improvements to education).
5. Kevin Systrom
Age: 30
Net Worth: $400 Million
Instagram is responsible for the menace called “amature food photography” which your friends share around social media, which ends up making you crave munchies at 2 AM at night, a time when nothing is open. Its co-founder is Kevin Systrom is a Stanford graduate who began the service with Mike Krieger. Both their bank balances got a serious boost after Facebook acquired Instagram in a Billion dollar takeover.
(Note: A previous version of this story said that the Firefox browser had 450 users. The error has been corrected. )