Information Technology-Making Young People Billionaires

Gone are those days you will just have to run a corporation for over 30 years, or even wait for your parents/relatives to inherit their wealth before you become a multi-millionaire or billionaire, things have long changed in the 21^st century with the world going Techi and IT (I mean: Information Technology) have become the mode of communication, buying and selling, weapons, transportation etc., in fact IT has become the basis of living, have you tried putting off your phone and other gadgets for a whole day? You will feel you are have been cut off from the planet.

Back to my discussion focused on Young people who have made billions through IT, research has shown that most of the young millionaires and billionaires today are no more those in Oil and Gas as Oil prices are falling very fast, but those in the IT space or using IT as a means of selling their products around the globe or communicating to their audience/customers; like social media companies, eCommerce, transportation, logistics, Movies, clothing and accessories etc. it has also shown that in 2015 44 out of the worlds billionaires are under 40 years old according to Forbes and a good chunk of them made their money through IT. Their fortune came just within 5 years of their establishment, from little startups (some are not even proper startups) to Multi-Billion dollar companies. Below are a few of the list as presented by Forbes. You can look up the rest here .

this shows that there are a lot of opportunities in the IT world to explore.

Evan Spiegel

Age: 24

Net worth: $1.5 billion

Evan Spiegel is the CEO of Snapchat, the temporary photo messaging company he cofounded with Bobby Murphy in 2011. The company, which was valued at $10 billion in 2014, was reported in February to have received offers to nearly double that valuation to $19 billion. In December, Spiegel earned rave reviews from tech peers and press for his business acumen after some emails written by the young CEO were made public in the fallout from a major hack of Sony Entertainment. After growing up comfortably in the Los Angeles area, Spiegel studied product design at Stanford University and met Murphy, who was two years ahead of him and studying math, at the Kappa Sigma frat house. The two eventually developed an app that could send photo messages to contacts with a timer that would remove them in 10 seconds or less and called it Picaboo and it flopped. Rebranded as Snapchat, the app took off in the fall of 2011 and is now used by more than 100 million people monthly, for free. Having spurned an acquisition attempt by Facebook, Speigel and Murphy maintain about 15% ownership stakes in the high-flying startup, FORBES estimates. In September 2014 the duo got rid of a significant distraction, settling out of court with another former fraternity brother and early creator of the app, Reggie Brown. (Settlement terms were confidential). Spiegel sees a big future for his company. “There are very few people in the world who get to build a business like this,” he told Forbes in late 2013. “I think trading that for some short-term gain isn’t very interesting.”

Bobby Murphy

Age: 25

Net worth: $1.5 billion

Bobby Murphy and Stanford University buddy Evan Spiegel together founded mobile app Snapchat. The company was valued in its latest investment round at $10 billion, with reports in February of 2015 that the company had received new funding offers at an eye-popping valuation of $19 billion. Forbes estimates that Murphy has a stake of at least 15%. He was two years older than cofounder Spiegel when they met at the Kappa Sigma fraternity house at Stanford in 2010, but the senior in mathematics and computational science with a placid demeanor meshed well with Spiegel’s brasher personality. The son of California state employees, one of whom emigrated from the Philippines, Murphy grew up in Berkeley, Calif. With a third fraternity brother, Reggie Brown, Murphy and Spiegel launched an app originally called Picaboo in 2011, which got little traction. Rebranded as Snapchat, the product, which allows you to send a contact a photo with a caption or writing on it that “disappears” in 10 seconds or less, first started to take off in late 2011. Now its user base could be approaching as many as 200 million people. “We weren’t cool,” Murphy once told Forbes about his and Spiegel’s experience in college. “So we tried to build things to be cool.”

Mark Zuckerberg

Age: 30

Net worth: $33.4 billion

Facebook cofounder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has led his social network to new heights, even as some younger users have grown tired of it. Revenue grew 58% in 2014 to $12.5 billion, supported by a jump in mobile ads. Some 1.4 billion people around the globe are on Facebook, and those users are watching 3 billion videos a day on the site. Its Instagram unit has more than 300 million users, while mobile messaging app WhatsApp, which it purchased for $19 billion in cash and stock in 2014, has 700 million users and is growing. Zuckerberg is aiming to turn virtual reality headset maker Oculus VR, for which it paid $2 billion in 2014, into a next generation computing platform. First, however, Oculus has to come out with a product. On the personal front, in October 2014 Zuckerberg plunked down $100 million for 700 acres in Hawaii on Kauai’s north shore, sources told Forbes. Zuckerberg is also philanthropically active: he and his wife Priscilla Chan committed $25 million to fight Ebola in October 2014 and $75 million to a new trauma center at San Francisco General Hospital in February 2015.

Dustin Moskovitz

Age: 30

Net worth: $7.9 billion

As Facebook’s third employee, Dustin Moskovitz helped kick-start the social network with roommate Mark Zuckerberg from their Harvard dorm. He dropped out of school after two years and joined Zuckerberg in Palo Alto to develop Facebook. He left the company in 2008 to start Asana, a software firm. Moskovitz is now married to former Wall Street Journal reporter Cari Tuna. Together, the couple has devoted some of their time to building Good Ventures, which has given millions of dollars to causes that range from malaria eradication to marriage equality. The organization also led a $15 million investment round in artificial intelligence company Vicarious FPC; Moskovitz sits on the company’s board. A member of Bill Gates’ and Warren Buffett’s Giving Pledge, Moskovitz bikes to work and flies commercial. He is also a regular attendee at Burning Man, and told Forbes years ago that he pitches his own tent at the event. In 2013, he blogged about meeting the Winklevoss twins for the first time at the desert festival.

Nathan Blecharczyk

Age: 31

Net worth: $1.9 billion

Nathan Blecharczyk is cofounder and chief technology officer of Airbnb, which lists 1,000,000 homes (or rooms in people’s houses or apartments) for rental stays; 30 million guests have used the service since it launched in 2008. Airbnb raised $450 million in April 2014, valuing the company at $10 billion and Blecharczyk’s stake at $1.5 billion. It’s since inched up in an employee share sale that valued the company at $13 billion in October 2014. Blecharczyk and his wife recently had their first child, a daughter, whom he brings into the office twice a week.

Ryan Graves

Age: 31

Net worth: $1.4 billion

Ryan Graves was the first employee hired at Uber, the ride-hailing service now valued at $41.2 billion. Uber is competing with taxi services across the U.S. and in 53 other countries around the world. The often-controversial company is banned in several countries including Spain and was temporarily banned in India as it battles regulators and safety concerns. In early 2015 the company said it would step up its cooperation with city governments in Europe, where it plans to grow. Graves joined Uber in 2010 when Travis Kalanick, Uber’s cofounder and current CEO, tweeted that he was looking for a product manager. Graves, who had worked at GE and interned at Foursquare, famously responded, “here’s a tip. email me :)” It worked. Graves had a brief stint as CEO and was replaced by Kalanick in 2010. He is now head of global operations for the company.

we also have some rising African Billionaires who I will be posting their stories very soon like,

Jason Njoku, Nigerian
Age: 31
Founder & CEO Iroko TV

Mark Shuttleworth, South African
Age: 38
Founder, Knife Capital

Ashish Thakkar, Ugandan
Age: 29
Co-Founder and CEO, Mara Group

Justin Stanford, South African
Age: 28
Founder & CEO, 4Di Group

Mike Macharia, Kenyan
Age: 36
Founder & CEO, Seven Seas Technologies

Vinny Lingham, South African
Age: 33
Founder, Yola Inc

I just believe there is no excuse these days not to succeed, there are a lot of stories out there to encourage young people to succeed. Stay inspired

Author Profile

Lawrence Obi

Lawrence is a Cards, Payments, Project Management and Sales Expert with over 16years in the Financial Sector. He is passionate about Excellence, Leadership and Innovation, currently chasing interest in digital Payment solutions, blockchain technology, financial Inclusion & tech startups.
Author of the book, Discover, Develop, Deploy
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B083PSNRYY

Lawrence has founded several businesses including a Licensed Fintech in Nigeria. He loves writing and sharing knowledge with his audience.
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