Whatsapp ceo jan koum biography for kids

Jan Koum became a billionaire in the very building he used to pick up food stamps for himself and his mother. Today, Koum’s net worth is $9.9 billion. Why someone hasn’t turned the life story of the father of WhatsApp into a movie is beyond anyone’s best guess. As a Ukrainian immigrant who escaped the U.S.S.R., he moved to the United States, met even more extreme poverty, but still managed to build a billion-dollar company within five years. 

For entrepreneurs and business leaders, Jan Koum’s story serves as inspiration. But going beyond a source of motivation, Koum and his business partner Brian Acton also demonstrate how to grow an innovative startup company. Additionally, they are a prime example of building a business that serves others and creates a massive positive impact on the world. 

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

Living in Poverty

Jan Koum was born in 1976 to a Jewish family in Kyiv, Ukraine. His father worked in construction, while his mother stayed at home with her son. As a child, Koum experienced the negative effects of growing up in a Communist regime, which deeply influenced his strong commitment to privacy protection. When describing why his company is so serious about this facet of business, he tells Wired: “I grew up in a society where everything you did was eavesdropped on, recorded, snitched on. Nobody should have the right to eavesdrop, or you become a totalitarian state—the kind of state I escaped as a kid.”

After the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, Koum’s mother decided it was best if the family moved to America to start a new chapter. But, their new life in Mountain View, California, wasn’t easy by any means. Although his father planned to join the family, he never did. Making matters worse, Koum’s mother received a cancer diagnosis shortly after their arrival in the U.S. To make ends meet, the mother and son received federal assistance: welfare, food stamp

Photo: Barcelona, Spain, February 24, 2014. Mobile World Congress. Image by Dan Taylor for tech.eu. www.tech.eu

by Arabella Walton

Co-founder of WhatsApp, Jan Koum might be worth over $10 billion now, but life wasn’t always so easy for Koum.

Early years 

Jan Koum was born in 1976 in Kiev, Ukraine, which was then a part of the former Soviet Union. Koum was raised in a town just outside of Kiev for most of his young life until 1992 when he and his mother emigrated to the United States. The family spent the rest of his childhood in a humble 2 bedroom apartment in Mountain View, California which they obtained through a government-run support program.

As a teenager, Koum worked as a cleaner at the local grocery store to support himself and his mother while they struggled financially, living off food stamps and government support. At 18, Koum discovered his passion for technology and taught himself computer networking through the study of manuals. Koum didn’t have the money to pay for new manuals so he bought them from a used book shop and returned them after he had read them to save money.

After a few years of fine-tuning his skills, Koum joined a hacker group called w00w00 in 1996 where he advanced his computer skills and networked with the future founder of Napster, Sean Fanning. 

Although self-taught in computer programming, Koum went on to higher education and studied at San Jose State University. While studying he worked part-time as a security tester at Ernst & Young, where he met WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton in 1997. 

By the time Jan was in his mid 20’s both his mother and father had passed away and he was living alone. He leant on his good friend Acton for support and together they left Ernst & Young to work at Yahoo!. In 1997 Koum dropped out of university so he could focus his attention on his work as an infrastructure engineer. Jan worked at Yahoo! for approxi

Ukrainian-born American entrepreneur, co-founder of WhatsApp

In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Borisovich and the family name is Kum.

Jan Borysovych Koum (born February 24, 1976) is a Ukrainian-American billionaire businessman and computer programmer. He is the co-founder and former CEO of WhatsApp, a mobile messaging app which was acquired by Facebook in 2014 for US$19.3 billion. According to Forbes, he has an estimated net worth of US$15.2 billion as of October 2023, making him one of the richest people in the world. Koum was ranked 44th on the Forbes' list of richest Americans in 2023 with a net worth of $15.1 billion.

Early life

Yan Borysovych Koum was born in Kyiv, then in the Ukrainian SSR, on February 24, 1976 into a Jewish family. He grew up in Fastiv. In 1992, at the age of 16, he moved with his mother and grandmother to Mountain View, California. A social support program helped the family get a small two-bedroom apartment there. His father had intended to join the family later, but he never left Ukraine and died in 1997. Koum and his mother remained in touch with his father until his death. At first, his mother worked as a babysitter while he worked as a cleaner at a grocery store. His mother died in 2000 after a long battle with cancer.

Career

By the age of 18, Koum had become interested in computer programming. He enrolled at San Jose State University and simultaneously worked at Ernst & Young as a security tester. He also joined w00w00, a computer security think tank started in 1996, where he met future Napster creators Shawn Fanning and Jordan Ritter.

In 1997, Koum met Brian Acton while working at Ernst & Young. Later that year, he was hired by Yahoo! as an infrastructure e

Interesting Facts About Jan Koum

Jan Koum is well-known as the co-founder of WhatsApp, the widely-used messaging application. Here are some intriguing facts about him:

1. Humble Beginnings

Jan Koum was born on February 24, 1976, in a small village near Kyiv, Ukraine. He came from a modest background, and his family immigrated to the United States when he was 16 years old. They moved to Mountain View, California, in search of a better life.

2. Early Struggles

Koum and his mother lived off food stamps in the early years of their immigration. His father intended to join them in the United States but chose to stay in Ukraine. Jan's journey from poverty to becoming a billionaire is truly inspirational.

3. Self-Taught Programmer

Jan Koum taught himself programming by buying books from a used bookstore and returning them after reading. He joined computer networking group w00w00, which included the future founders of Napster.

4. Employment at Yahoo!

Before co-founding WhatsApp, Koum worked at Yahoo! for almost nine years. He started as an infrastructure engineer and met his future WhatsApp co-founder, Brian Acton, during his tenure there.

5. Rejection from Facebook

After leaving Yahoo!, both Koum and Acton applied for jobs at Facebook and were rejected. Ironically, years later, Facebook purchased WhatsApp for a whopping $19 billion in 2014, marking one of the largest acquisition deals in tech history.

6. Privacy Advocate

One of the core principles Koum instilled in WhatsApp was a strong stance on user privacy. He insisted on minimal data collection and complete encryption back when privacy wasn’t a hot topic.

7. WhatsApp's Simplicity

The initial idea for WhatsApp emerged in 2009. Koum wanted an app that showed statuses next to names of individuals. The concept evolved, and the first version of WhatsApp allowed users to update their statuses, which eventually led to messaging features.

8. Retiring from Facebook

In April 2018, Koum announced he would step