Brian Acton - Co-founder of Whatsapp, Career and Childhood
Brian Acton's Personal Details
Brian Acton is an American Internet entrepreneur and computer programmer best known as the co-founder of WhatsApp
| Information | Detail |
|---|---|
| Birthday | February 17, 1972 |
| Nationality | American |
| Famous | Business People, Internet Entrepreneurs, Co-founder of Whatsapp |
| City/State | Michigan |
| Spouses | Marina Acton |
| Universities |
|
| Founder / Co-Founder |
|
| Birth Place | Michigan |
| Height | 170 |
| Gender | Male |
| Sun Sign | Aquarius |
| Born in | Michigan |
| Famous as | Co-founder of WhatsApp |
| Socials |
// Famous Co-founder of Whatsapp
Jan Koum
Jan Koum is a Ukrainian-born American internet entrepreneur who co-founded the mobile messaging application WhatsApp. This biography of Jan Koum provides detailed information about his childhood, life, achievements, works & timeline.
Brian Acton's photo
Who is Brian Acton?
Brian Acton is an American Internet entrepreneur and computer programmer best known as the co-founder of WhatsApp. A graduate of computer science from the Stanford University, Acton began his career as a system administrator for Rockwell International. Moving on, he worked with companies like Adobe systems, Apple and Yahoo Inc. He invested in the dot-com boom but lost millions during the 2000 dot-com crash. He left Yahoo along with his colleague Jan Koum and eventually went on to develop the mobile messaging application WhatsApp with the latter. The duo, who once applied for jobs at Facebook but faced rejection, sold WhatsApp to Facebook in February 2014 for US$19 billion, the largest acquisition of Facebook till present. In September 2017, Acton left WhatsApp to start a non-profit organization with American computer security researcher Moxie Marlinspike, called ‘Signal Foundation,’ which was founded in February 2018.
// Famous Business People
Kristina Sunshine Jung
Kristina Sunshine Jung is an American entrepreneur and actor, better known as the daughter of drug-smuggler George Jung and his ex-wife, Mirtha Jung.
Ted Turner
Ted Turner is a media tycoon who founded the cable news network CNN. This biography of Ted Turner provides detailed information about his childhood, life, achievements, works & timeline.
Guccio Gucci
Guccio Gucci was a famous fashion designer from Florence, Italy, and the founder of the world-renowned fashion brand ‘Gucci.’ Check out this biography to know about his childhood, family, personal life, career, etc.
Childhood & Early Life
He was born on February 17, 1972, in the US state of Michigan to a working middle class family. His mother who inspired him to start his own business ran a freight shipping firm.
He was raised in Central Florida where he attended comprehensive four-year high school called Lake Howell High School. He joined University of Pennsylvania after getting a full scholarship to study engineering, however left it a year later to attend Stanford University. In 1994, he completed his graduation and obtained a degree in computer science from Stanford.
Career
He started his career in 1992 being inducted as a systems administrator in the now defunct American manufacturing conglomerate Rockwell International. He then went on to work as a product tester in the American multinational technology company Apple Inc. as well as in the American multinational computer software company Adobe Systems.
He joined Yahoo Inc. in 1996 as the 44th employee to be inducted in the company. For the next eleven years he worked for Yahoo where Jan Koum also joined as an infrastructure engineer in 1998. Meanwhile Acton went on to invest during the dotcom boom. He had to incur losses in millions at the time of the 2000 dot-com bubble.
In 2007 he received the Yahoo Super Star award. He along with Koum left Yahoo in September that year. They then took a hiatus for a year during which time they travelled across South America and played ultimate frisbee. The two also faced rejection after applying to work for Facebook.
After Koum purchased an iPhone in January 2009, he realised the potential of the seven-month-old App Store in spawning an entirely new apps industry in the near future. He began meeting his friend Alex Fishman in West San Jose and along with Acton the three would discuss on developing an app. The app was named ‘WhatsApp’ by Koum to make it sound more like "what's up".
Koum then incorporated WhatsApp Inc. on February 24, 2009, in California. At one point when Koum got fed up of versions of the app getting crashed or stuck, he thought of leaving it and search for a new job. At that time Acton advised him to give it a "few more months” time.
WhatsApp 2.0 was released in August 2009 including a messaging component. A sudden upsurge in number of active users was observed reaching the count to 250,000. Acton who was till such time unemployed and was overseeing another startup, convinced five of his ex-Yahoo! friends in October that year to invest $250,000 in seed funding. He was given co-founder status as also a stake and joined the company officially on November 1 same year.
With time the app developed including new features and by early 2011, the app emerged among the top 20 apps in Apple's U.S. App Store. In April that year, American venture capital firm Sequoia Capital made an investment of around $8 million for more than 15 percent of the company.
Facebook made an announcement on February 19, 2014 that it was taking over WhatsApp for US$19 billion. Such acquisition not only marks the largest one made by the American online social media and social networking service company till present but also the largest purchase of any venture-backed company till such time.
Koum and Acton were granted $12 billion in Facebook shares, $4 billion in cash and an additional $3 billion in restricted stock units. According to an estimate of Forbes, Acton held more than one-fifth stake in the company which made his net worth to about $3.8 billion.
In September 2017, Acton left WhatsApp's parent company Facebook to come up with new foundation called the ‘Signal Foundation’. On February 21, the following year Acton along with Moxie Marlinspike announced the formation of the 501(c)(3) non profit organization ‘Signal Foundation’, which shares its name with Marlinspike founded Signal messaging app.
An initial amount of $50 million was funded by Acton to start ‘Signal Foundation’, the mission of which is to develop open source privacy technology that safeguard free expression as also provide secure worldwide communication. Acton serves as the Executive Chairman of the foundation with Marlinspike as its Chief Executive Officer.
He made it to several of Forbes lists including being seeded #76 in Forbes 400 2017, #38 in Richest In Tech 2017 and #251 in Billionaires 2018. According to a Forbes report on March 20, 2018, Acton tweeted publicly backing the #DeleteFacebook movement.
Personal Life
His wife, Tegan Acton, was the Director of Communications and Strategic Initiatives at Stanford and also served the Sundance Institute and Yahoo. The couple started a family foundation, ‘Sunlight Giving,’ in 2014. It is dedicated to aid families with low-income having kids between the age group 0–5 with basic services. While Acton serves as the secretary and treasurer of the foundation, Tegan acts as its President.
According to sources, Acton donated around $290 million worth Facebook shares to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation after WhatsApp was acquired by Facebook.
He had mentioned in one of his tweets that he was rejected by Facebook as well as Twitter in 2009.
// Famous Internet Entrepreneurs
Jack Ma
Jack Ma is a Business tycoon belonging to China known for his e-commerce business venture ‘Alibaba’. This biography of Jack Ma provides detailed information about his childhood, profile, career & timeline
Max Polyakov
Max Polyakov is an international businessman, scientist and philanthropist. Read on to learn more about Max Polyakov’s achievements in business and science.
Larry Page
Larry Page is the co-founder of search engine Google. This biography of Larry Page provides detailed information about his life, achievements, works & timeline.
Brian Acton biography timelines
- // 17th Feb 1972He was born on February 17, 1972, in the US state of Michigan to a working middle class family. His mother who inspired him to start his own business ran a freight shipping firm.
- // 1992He started his career in 1992 being inducted as a systems administrator in the now defunct American manufacturing conglomerate Rockwell International. He then went on to work as a product tester in the American multinational technology company Apple Inc. as well as in the American multinational computer software company Adobe Systems.
- // 1994He was raised in Central Florida where he attended comprehensive four-year high school called Lake Howell High School. He joined University of Pennsylvania after getting a full scholarship to study engineering, however left it a year later to attend Stanford University. In 1994, he completed his graduation and obtained a degree in computer science from Stanford.
- // 2007In 2007 he received the Yahoo Super Star award. He along with Koum left Yahoo in September that year. They then took a hiatus for a year during which time they travelled across South America and played ultimate frisbee. The two also faced rejection after applying to work for Facebook.
- // 2009He had mentioned in one of his tweets that he was rejected by Facebook as well as Twitter in 2009.
- // Jan 2009After Koum purchased an iPhone in January 2009, he realised the potential of the seven-month-old App Store in spawning an entirely new apps industry in the near future. He began meeting his friend Alex Fishman in West San Jose and along with Acton the three would discuss on developing an app. The app was named ‘WhatsApp’ by Koum to make it sound more like "what's up".
- // 24th Feb 2009Koum then incorporated WhatsApp Inc. on February 24, 2009, in California. At one point when Koum got fed up of versions of the app getting crashed or stuck, he thought of leaving it and search for a new job. At that time Acton advised him to give it a "few more months” time.
- // Aug 2009WhatsApp 2.0 was released in August 2009 including a messaging component. A sudden upsurge in number of active users was observed reaching the count to 250,000. Acton who was till such time unemployed and was overseeing another startup, convinced five of his ex-Yahoo! friends in October that year to invest $250,000 in seed funding. He was given co-founder status as also a stake and joined the company officially on November 1 same year.
- // 2011With time the app developed including new features and by early 2011, the app emerged among the top 20 apps in Apple's U.S. App Store. In April that year, American venture capital firm Sequoia Capital made an investment of around $8 million for more than 15 percent of the company.
- // 2014His wife, Tegan Acton, was the Director of Communications and Strategic Initiatives at Stanford and also served the Sundance Institute and Yahoo. The couple started a family foundation, ‘Sunlight Giving,’ in 2014. It is dedicated to aid families with low-income having kids between the age group 0–5 with basic services. While Acton serves as the secretary and treasurer of the foundation, Tegan acts as its President.
- // 19th Feb 2014Facebook made an announcement on February 19, 2014 that it was taking over WhatsApp for US$19 billion. Such acquisition not only marks the largest one made by the American online social media and social networking service company till present but also the largest purchase of any venture-backed company till such time.
- // Sep 2017In September 2017, Acton left WhatsApp's parent company Facebook to come up with new foundation called the ‘Signal Foundation’. On February 21, the following year Acton along with Moxie Marlinspike announced the formation of the 501(c)(3) non profit organization ‘Signal Foundation’, which shares its name with Marlinspike founded Signal messaging app.
// Famous Michigan peoples
Jordyn Jones
Jordyn Jones is an American dancer. Let’s have a look at her family & personal life including age, date of birth, boyfriends, net worth, and fun facts.
Ted Nugent
Ted Nugent is a hard rock musician known for his hits ‘Stranglehold’ and ‘Cat Scratch Fever’. This biography of Ted Nugent provides detailed information about his childhood, life, achievements, works & timeline.
Brooklyn McKnight
Brooklyn McKnight is an American YouTube star and social media personality. Let’s have a look at her family & personal life including age, boyfriends, net worth, and fun facts.
Ava Michelle Cota
Ava Michelle Cota is an American vocalist and dancer. Let’s take a look at her family & personal life including age, boyfriends, net worth, and fun facts.
Eric Allan Kramer
Eric Allan Kramer is an American–Canadian actor. Let’s take a look at his childhood, family, personal life, his birthday, age, etc.
Aileen Wuornos
Aileen Wuornos was a serial killer who was sentenced to death for killing seven men in Florida. This biography of Aileen Wuornos provides detailed information about her childhood, life, crimes & timeline.
Brian Acton's FAQ
What is Brian Acton birthday?
Brian Acton was born at 1972-02-17
Where is Brian Acton's birth place?
Brian Acton was born in Michigan
What is Brian Acton nationalities?
Brian Acton's nationalities is American
Who is Brian Acton spouses?
Brian Acton's spouses is Marina Acton
What was Brian Acton universities?
Brian Acton studied at Lake Howell High School, Stanford University
Which company or organization was founded by Brian Acton?
Brian Acton was the founder/co-founder of Co-founded WhatsApp
How tall is Brian Acton?
Brian Acton's height is 170
What is Brian Acton's sun sign?
Brian Acton is Aquarius
How famous is Brian Acton?
Brian Acton is famouse as Co-founder of WhatsApp
What is Brian Acton's twitter?
Brian Acton's twitter is https://twitter.com/brianacton