Few people know how to turn frustration and rejection from employers into success as wealthy entrepreneurs. Fortunately, Jan Koum is not like many people.
Koum, a Ukrainian-born engineer, was turned down by the social media giant, Facebook, for a job and toiled for nearly ten years at Yahoo, the giant Internet corporation. But why toil when you can rock and roll, so to speak, with your own company?
He then co-created WhatsApp with Brian Acton, his former Yahoo officemate. His idea behind the now-popular messaging app was combining a free mobile app that allows users to send and receive texts, calls, photos and videos. His start-up eventually acquired millions of users before it was snatched up by Facebook for $19 billion in February 2014, the most expensive acquisition to date for a venture-backed startup.
With the sale, Koum became one of the richest persons in the United States (i.e., ranked #62 by Forbes magazine) with his estimated net worth of $7.5 billion.
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