17 ms·

WhatsApp’s Founder Goes From Food Stamps to Billionaire

96 points by jljljl 13y ago

feifan 13y ago
IMHO, well deserved. A focus on doing right by the users.
TrainedMonkey 13y ago
I am happy WhatsApp turned out great for him, what did not go so great is getting away to a country that does not tap phones. "The experience of living in a country where phone lines were often tapped, instilled the importance of privacy in him, said Jim Goetz, a partner with Sequoia Capital Ltd., WhatsApp’s lone venture capital investor."
- mcintyre1994 13y ago
  I wonder if the NSA tapped WhatsApp at all and if so how he felt about it, I haven't heard anything but it seems like it would have been a great target for them, US company with loads of international users messaging.
  - dmix 13y ago
    WhatsApp's SSL implementation sucks, so the NSA doesn't even need to approach them directly. They can transparently intercept messages: http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/02/crypto-weaknesses-in-whatsapp-the-kind-of-stuff-the-nsa-would-love/ http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/02/crypto-weaknesses-in...
- lmg643 13y ago
  There's a Yakov Smirnoff joke in here somewhere. "In [Ukraine], government taps phones of companies. In America, companies tap phones for government!" Unfortunately, these jokes were usually presented the other way around - with Soviet Union as the butt of jokes. Times change... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_reversal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_reversal
- josefresco 13y ago
  That statement was made in reference to features of the app not in reference to what country he moved to. He didn't say "now that I'm in America and have privacy I can make this app* It said basically his experience living in a country with no privacy led him to build his app in a way that respects privacy of it's users. Big difference. You could make the same argument about his current country (the US) although I don't think anyone can seriously compare the two.
plg 13y ago
Didn't he have a job, for many years, at Yahoo, before starting WhatsApp? Didn't his co-founder also exit Yahoo with what most Americans would consider a crapload of cash? (an amount one would think of when one thinks of winning a lottery)? I appreciate that he started WhatsApp from scratch but this picture that is being painted of him as some sort of homeless street person is rather warped, don't you think? As if a former Yahoo technical engineer with a similarly qualified best buddy who has a crapload of cash, both of whom live in Silicon Valley, and have (I assume) plenty of other buddies in the industry, is somehow "starting from scratch from nothing". The vast, vast majority of Americans should be so lucky to have the "nothing" that they had. Not to mention the rest of the earth's population. The real truth isn't so much a story of "the poor getting rich" but really, "the rich getting super rich".
- danso 13y ago
  > For Koum, 38, the windfall would stand in stark contrast to his years as a teenager, when his family relied on food stamps after emigrating from Ukraine. The experience of living in a country where phone lines were often tapped, instilled the importance of privacy in him, said Jim Goetz, a partner with Sequoia Capital Ltd., WhatsApp’s lone venture capital investor. He grew up on food stamps. Even if it is only during your formative years, it is most definitely a different perspective than never having to rely on food stamps in your life.
  - plg 13y ago
    True
  - newman314 13y ago
    WhatsApp has had multiple security incidents. See the Wikipedia entry. Kind of hard to see how he values privacy without proper security.
  - auctiontheory 13y ago
    The irony is that he is still living in a country where phone lines are often tapped - probably more so than in his youth.
wnevets 13y ago
but I was told only worthless parasites that are too lazy to work use foodstamps
- w1ntermute 13y ago
  Read between the lines - what they were really saying is that blacks and Hispanics on food stamps are worthless parasites. It's nothing more than codified racism.
kevingadd 13y ago
How long do you think it will take for him to start lobbying against taxes on the rich and social programs? It'd be nice if he maintained some perspective, but that doesn't seem to happen with SV millionaires/billionaires...
- jami 13y ago
  It sounds like he's had money for most of his adult life, but he clearly still remembers that not everyone is as lucky.
  - Consultant32452 13y ago
    Going from being a kid whose parents received food stamps to a billionaire is an amazing example of social mobility that is definitely not the norm. The fact that he wasn't poor for his adult life is just one detail of the greater story.
- josefresco 13y ago
  What silicon valley millionaire is advocating against taxing the rich? The only one I know of that has an opinion is Gates, and it's exactly the opposite of what you're implying.
  - lutusp 13y ago
    Warren Buffett also advocates higher taxes for the rich: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/opinion/stop-coddling-the-super-rich.html http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/opinion/stop-coddling-the-... Quote: "My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress. It’s time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice." Buffett, Gates and many other super-rich people have decided to give most of their fortunes to charity, not to their children.
    - kevingadd 13y ago
      Wouldn't putting your fortune into a charitable trust (like the Gates foundation - iirc a 501(c)3 tax exempt organization) basically count as a way to evade paying full tax on it (estate taxes, etc)? Not that I'm saying giving your money to charity is bad, but it seems like a way to reduce your tax burden while still being able to direct the money towards things you were interested in doing anyway.
TempleOSV2 13y ago
I go from disability to chief priest of God's official temple. I command all citizens of age to make 3 offerings a year, for starters. God says... downwards commission Ambition tempts reputation seven him teachings drunkenness dotards heavenly names glorify aside lighteth magistrates Christ appears hallow distributed recovery Wondrous relied royalties whisperings loves Libanus midnight INDIRECT as severing gallantry starry springs slave let's created 333 astrologer lighten intrude those showed townsman sweetly load abstinence withstood shaken butler evidence project place deeps eloquence discontent conjectures potter's lust Plain kingdom intoxicated obedient ventures breast intend Within nights tumultuously
photorized 13y ago
Speaking of different universes, most immigrant families from Ukraine/Belarus/Russia that I know, are working their asses off and are too proud to be on food stamps or any other form of gov't assistance. They view the US as the land of opportunity, and that doesn't mean food stamps.
- josefresco 13y ago
  Good for them, but being "too proud" doesn't work when your family is starving. In fact if I knew of a family "too proud" to use food stamps who's children were being harmed as a result, I'd report them and I'd hope you would too as they (the children) deserve better.
  - photorized 13y ago
    Working (for pay) does work. Teenagers can work, too.
brubaker 13y ago
This isn't a rag to riches story. He was a successful guy that started a company with financial backing, he didn't have to bootstrap it etc. He obviously worked hard, built something valuable and useful by a lot of people but let's focus on the reality, not a myth
zackmorris 13y ago
I still hold out hope that someday, someone will go from rags to riches and opt out of being what everyone expects him or her to be. A billion dollars could change the world, if applied toward the solving the problems in externalities and the commons that capitalism currently ignores. Reminds me of a book that's still in my queue: http://www.amazon.com/Only-Super-Rich-Can-Save-Us/dp/B003JTHSOU http://www.amazon.com/Only-Super-Rich-Can-Save-Us/dp/B003JTH...
- judk 13y ago
  I hope not. Everyone expects billionaires not be massive philanthropists like Gates and Buffett and Carnegie. You can have Ellison, I guess.
rachellaw 13y ago
that's an American dream story there the irony of moving from wiretapping ukraine to corporate wiretapping by facebook (and possibly NSA) is palpable though. pretty sure facebook just bought whatsapp to get the giant phonebook directory...
- Dewie 13y ago
  > that's an American dream story there Even a broken clock is right sometimes.
gadders 13y ago
People normally trot out this quote in other circumstances, but it fits here too: Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires. John Steinbeck Seems like some of them could be billionaires, too.
amorphid 13y ago
I was homeless and on foodstamps about 5 years ago. Within three years I had a bootstrapped business with 15 people and sold my stake. Life can certainly change quickly! I'm happy for the team at WhatsApp. All other things being equal, having money is much nicer than not having it.
gojomo 13y ago
Oh, great, now SoMa will be overrun with artisanal food stamp offices.
benched 13y ago
What was it that triggered such a verbose non-discussion of a non-controversy in this thread?
- TheBiv 13y ago
  The title. People have their own opinions of why saying 1. Be poor 2. ???? 3. Be rich. Is counterproductive to helping other replicate their success. Other people read the story and are inspired by the title and so they feel a connection with it. Other people want to troll! :)
exodust 13y ago
I tried WhatsApp, then stopped using it when it became painfully apparent that unless all my contacts use WhatsApp, it will never be a good experience for me. I don't want fragmented messaging on my phone. Not only that, but SMS is very cheap. In Australia at least, most mobile plans come with unlimited, or more than enough SMS messages included in the plan to satisfy most people. I send a lot of text messages and it never makes any dent on my monthly bill. What I'm getting at is, I'm puzzled why the app is worth 19 billion.

96 points by jljljl 13y ago

IMHO, well deserved. A focus on doing right by the users.

I am happy WhatsApp turned out great for him, what did not go so great is getting away to a country that does not tap phones. "The experience of living in a country where phone lines were often tapped, instilled the importance of privacy in him, said Jim Goetz, a partner with Sequoia Capital Ltd., WhatsApp’s lone venture capital investor."

mcintyre1994 13y ago
I wonder if the NSA tapped WhatsApp at all and if so how he felt about it, I haven't heard anything but it seems like it would have been a great target for them, US company with loads of international users messaging.
- dmix 13y ago
  WhatsApp's SSL implementation sucks, so the NSA doesn't even need to approach them directly. They can transparently intercept messages: http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/02/crypto-weaknesses-in-whatsapp-the-kind-of-stuff-the-nsa-would-love/ http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/02/crypto-weaknesses-in...
lmg643 13y ago
There's a Yakov Smirnoff joke in here somewhere. "In [Ukraine], government taps phones of companies. In America, companies tap phones for government!" Unfortunately, these jokes were usually presented the other way around - with Soviet Union as the butt of jokes. Times change... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_reversal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_reversal
josefresco 13y ago
That statement was made in reference to features of the app not in reference to what country he moved to. He didn't say "now that I'm in America and have privacy I can make this app* It said basically his experience living in a country with no privacy led him to build his app in a way that respects privacy of it's users. Big difference. You could make the same argument about his current country (the US) although I don't think anyone can seriously compare the two.

plg 13y ago

Didn't he have a job, for many years, at Yahoo, before starting WhatsApp? Didn't his co-founder also exit Yahoo with what most Americans would consider a crapload of cash? (an amount one would think of when one thinks of winning a lottery)? I appreciate that he started WhatsApp from scratch but this picture that is being painted of him as some sort of homeless street person is rather warped, don't you think? As if a former Yahoo technical engineer with a similarly qualified best buddy who has a crapload of cash, both of whom live in Silicon Valley, and have (I assume) plenty of other buddies in the industry, is somehow "starting from scratch from nothing". The vast, vast majority of Americans should be so lucky to have the "nothing" that they had. Not to mention the rest of the earth's population. The real truth isn't so much a story of "the poor getting rich" but really, "the rich getting super rich".

danso 13y ago
> For Koum, 38, the windfall would stand in stark contrast to his years as a teenager, when his family relied on food stamps after emigrating from Ukraine. The experience of living in a country where phone lines were often tapped, instilled the importance of privacy in him, said Jim Goetz, a partner with Sequoia Capital Ltd., WhatsApp’s lone venture capital investor. He grew up on food stamps. Even if it is only during your formative years, it is most definitely a different perspective than never having to rely on food stamps in your life.
- plg 13y ago
  True
- newman314 13y ago
  WhatsApp has had multiple security incidents. See the Wikipedia entry. Kind of hard to see how he values privacy without proper security.
- auctiontheory 13y ago
  The irony is that he is still living in a country where phone lines are often tapped - probably more so than in his youth.

wnevets 13y ago

but I was told only worthless parasites that are too lazy to work use foodstamps

w1ntermute 13y ago
Read between the lines - what they were really saying is that blacks and Hispanics on food stamps are worthless parasites. It's nothing more than codified racism.

kevingadd 13y ago

How long do you think it will take for him to start lobbying against taxes on the rich and social programs? It'd be nice if he maintained some perspective, but that doesn't seem to happen with SV millionaires/billionaires...

jami 13y ago
It sounds like he's had money for most of his adult life, but he clearly still remembers that not everyone is as lucky.
- Consultant32452 13y ago
  Going from being a kid whose parents received food stamps to a billionaire is an amazing example of social mobility that is definitely not the norm. The fact that he wasn't poor for his adult life is just one detail of the greater story.
josefresco 13y ago
What silicon valley millionaire is advocating against taxing the rich? The only one I know of that has an opinion is Gates, and it's exactly the opposite of what you're implying.
- lutusp 13y ago
  Warren Buffett also advocates higher taxes for the rich: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/opinion/stop-coddling-the-super-rich.html http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/opinion/stop-coddling-the-... Quote: "My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress. It’s time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice." Buffett, Gates and many other super-rich people have decided to give most of their fortunes to charity, not to their children.
  - kevingadd 13y ago
    Wouldn't putting your fortune into a charitable trust (like the Gates foundation - iirc a 501(c)3 tax exempt organization) basically count as a way to evade paying full tax on it (estate taxes, etc)? Not that I'm saying giving your money to charity is bad, but it seems like a way to reduce your tax burden while still being able to direct the money towards things you were interested in doing anyway.

TempleOSV2 13y ago

I go from disability to chief priest of God's official temple. I command all citizens of age to make 3 offerings a year, for starters. God says... downwards commission Ambition tempts reputation seven him teachings drunkenness dotards heavenly names glorify aside lighteth magistrates Christ appears hallow distributed recovery Wondrous relied royalties whisperings loves Libanus midnight INDIRECT as severing gallantry starry springs slave let's created 333 astrologer lighten intrude those showed townsman sweetly load abstinence withstood shaken butler evidence project place deeps eloquence discontent conjectures potter's lust Plain kingdom intoxicated obedient ventures breast intend Within nights tumultuously

photorized 13y ago

Speaking of different universes, most immigrant families from Ukraine/Belarus/Russia that I know, are working their asses off and are too proud to be on food stamps or any other form of gov't assistance. They view the US as the land of opportunity, and that doesn't mean food stamps.

josefresco 13y ago
Good for them, but being "too proud" doesn't work when your family is starving. In fact if I knew of a family "too proud" to use food stamps who's children were being harmed as a result, I'd report them and I'd hope you would too as they (the children) deserve better.
- photorized 13y ago
  Working (for pay) does work. Teenagers can work, too.

brubaker 13y ago

This isn't a rag to riches story. He was a successful guy that started a company with financial backing, he didn't have to bootstrap it etc. He obviously worked hard, built something valuable and useful by a lot of people but let's focus on the reality, not a myth

zackmorris 13y ago

I still hold out hope that someday, someone will go from rags to riches and opt out of being what everyone expects him or her to be. A billion dollars could change the world, if applied toward the solving the problems in externalities and the commons that capitalism currently ignores. Reminds me of a book that's still in my queue: http://www.amazon.com/Only-Super-Rich-Can-Save-Us/dp/B003JTHSOU http://www.amazon.com/Only-Super-Rich-Can-Save-Us/dp/B003JTH...

judk 13y ago
I hope not. Everyone expects billionaires not be massive philanthropists like Gates and Buffett and Carnegie. You can have Ellison, I guess.

rachellaw 13y ago

that's an American dream story there the irony of moving from wiretapping ukraine to corporate wiretapping by facebook (and possibly NSA) is palpable though. pretty sure facebook just bought whatsapp to get the giant phonebook directory...

Dewie 13y ago
> that's an American dream story there Even a broken clock is right sometimes.

gadders 13y ago

People normally trot out this quote in other circumstances, but it fits here too: Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires. John Steinbeck Seems like some of them could be billionaires, too.

amorphid 13y ago

I was homeless and on foodstamps about 5 years ago. Within three years I had a bootstrapped business with 15 people and sold my stake. Life can certainly change quickly! I'm happy for the team at WhatsApp. All other things being equal, having money is much nicer than not having it.

gojomo 13y ago

Oh, great, now SoMa will be overrun with artisanal food stamp offices.

benched 13y ago

What was it that triggered such a verbose non-discussion of a non-controversy in this thread?

TheBiv 13y ago
The title. People have their own opinions of why saying 1. Be poor 2. ???? 3. Be rich. Is counterproductive to helping other replicate their success. Other people read the story and are inspired by the title and so they feel a connection with it. Other people want to troll! :)

exodust 13y ago

I tried WhatsApp, then stopped using it when it became painfully apparent that unless all my contacts use WhatsApp, it will never be a good experience for me. I don't want fragmented messaging on my phone. Not only that, but SMS is very cheap. In Australia at least, most mobile plans come with unlimited, or more than enough SMS messages included in the plan to satisfy most people. I send a lot of text messages and it never makes any dent on my monthly bill. What I'm getting at is, I'm puzzled why the app is worth 19 billion.