Jan Koum Net Worth is $7.3 Billion (as of 2020)
As for the day, Jan Koum net worth is estimated at $7.3 billion, making him one of the richest men in the world. In fact, Jan’s life story is one of the greatest rags-to-riches stories ever told. This man was born in a poor little town in Ukraine and eventually established himself as one of the most successful internet entrepreneurs in the United States. He started from nothing and today Jan Koum net worth amounts to billions, not just millions, of dollars. Hence, I believe it is worth to take some time and take a closer look at his impressive professional career.
Quick facts
| Net Worth: | $7.3 Billion |
|---|---|
| Last Updated: | 2023 |
As I have already mentioned, Jan was born in Ukraine, just outside of the capital Kyiv. His family was Jewish and like so many other people in Ukraine at that time, could barely make the ends meet. It was anti-Semitism and poverty that forced Jan’s mother to take her teenage son out of the country to the United States. The two had very little money to start a new life. In fact, before the travel Jan’s mother had stuffed their suitcases with a stack of 20 Soviet-issued notebooks and some pens just to avoid paying for school supplies in the United States. After arrival the mother took up a job as a baby sitter and the would-be billionaire started working as a cleaner in a local grocery shop. Needless to say, neither of these jobs was lucrative and Koum had to spend many hours standing in line for food stamps just to survive. Back in the day it was impossible to imagine that one day Jan Koum net worth will amount to more than $7 billion. But his professional career started taking off pretty early.
According to Forbes, by the age 18 Jan had learned computer networking all by himself, by purchasing manuals from a used book store nearby and returning them after he was done. After graduation Koum started attending San Jose State University and simultaneously working as a security tester at Ernst & Young. It was in 2009 when Jan Koum net worth started to grow with an incredible speed. That year the entrepreneur launched an instant messaging app for smart-phones called WhatsApp. He came up with this idea after buying an Phone and realizing that App Store is about to spawn an absolutely knew, large industry. While speaking about the success of this endeavour Koum has said: “On one hand, we were kind of expecting it (…) We got to 200 million users, 300 million users, 400 million users. It was going to happen sooner or later. But we think it’s (500 million) an exciting number to share with the world and a good milestone to acknowledge what’s all been organic growth.”
