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Acton has had an interesting road since selling WhatsApp to Facebook. That includes leaving Facebook with $850 million USD in shares on the table for leaving ea

by mfer 5y ago

Acton has had an interesting road since selling WhatsApp to Facebook. That includes leaving Facebook with $850 million USD in shares on the table for leaving early and telling people to delete their Facebook accounts. Looking at what he's done tells the story of someone who learned many lessons since he sold WhatsApp.

armchairhacker 5y ago
i wonder if Acton figured that WhatsApp might lose to competitors and privacy-focused people would migrate to a new app anyways, and he could do more good with almost $1 billion. And also $1 billion is quite a lot of money.
godelski 5y ago
> That includes leaving Facebook with $850 million USD in shares on the table for leaving early and telling people to delete their Facebook accounts. Honestly this action was one of the things that really made me like Acton. It was more than words. Granted, he already had a few billion dollars at that point -- and I'm under the opinion that $2bn isn't much different from $1bn (except bragging rights) (current work 2.8bn[0]) -- but it shows that money isn't his (only) motivating factor. It is also pretty hard to tell people to leave something you built. [0] https://www.forbes.com/profile/brian-acton/?sh=13ea0bdb5cfc https://www.forbes.com/profile/brian-acton/?sh=13ea0bdb5cfc
- boeingUH60 5y ago
  WhatsApp’s other co-founder, Jan Koum, also reportedly [1] walked away from hundreds of millions by leaving Facebook due to disagreements. Turns out he was still employed [2] despite saying it was time to “move on”, in order to get his remaining money...lol 1 - https://fortune.com/2018/05/01/jan-koum-whatsapp-facebook/ https://fortune.com/2018/05/01/jan-koum-whatsapp-facebook/ 2 - https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/15/whatsapps-jan-koum-left-facebook-but-is-still-showing-up-to-vest-stock.html https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/15/whatsapps-jan-koum-left-face...

by mfer 5y ago

armchairhacker 5y ago

i wonder if Acton figured that WhatsApp might lose to competitors and privacy-focused people would migrate to a new app anyways, and he could do more good with almost $1 billion. And also $1 billion is quite a lot of money.

godelski 5y ago

> That includes leaving Facebook with $850 million USD in shares on the table for leaving early and telling people to delete their Facebook accounts. Honestly this action was one of the things that really made me like Acton. It was more than words. Granted, he already had a few billion dollars at that point -- and I'm under the opinion that $2bn isn't much different from $1bn (except bragging rights) (current work 2.8bn[0]) -- but it shows that money isn't his (only) motivating factor. It is also pretty hard to tell people to leave something you built. [0] https://www.forbes.com/profile/brian-acton/?sh=13ea0bdb5cfc https://www.forbes.com/profile/brian-acton/?sh=13ea0bdb5cfc

boeingUH60 5y ago
WhatsApp’s other co-founder, Jan Koum, also reportedly [1] walked away from hundreds of millions by leaving Facebook due to disagreements. Turns out he was still employed [2] despite saying it was time to “move on”, in order to get his remaining money...lol 1 - https://fortune.com/2018/05/01/jan-koum-whatsapp-facebook/ https://fortune.com/2018/05/01/jan-koum-whatsapp-facebook/ 2 - https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/15/whatsapps-jan-koum-left-facebook-but-is-still-showing-up-to-vest-stock.html https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/15/whatsapps-jan-koum-left-face...