Facebook Slammed The Door In His Face Several Times. He Created An App That Conquered The World, And Zuckerberg Bought It For Him For 19 Billion

Many do not know it, but they this app every day and cannot do without it (almost all over the world). Not everyone who is behind a successful project becomes a famous person. This is the case with Jan Koum.

He is one of the richest men in the world thanks to his WhatsApp application. But Jan’s story hasn’t always been this rosy.

He was born in 1976 in Kyiv, Ukraine. As a young man, he moved to the United States with his family, to escape the poverty in Eastern Europe.

Upon arriving in California, Jan began working as a clerk in a dog food store and later in a shopping mall.

Jan later met Brian Acton, co-founder of WhatsApp. The two made friends, pooled ideas, courage, and funding, and began to work together.

But the road has been long and painful. The inventor of the messaging app had the characteristics that experts say are typical of all successful people.

The good news is, that it is a character aspect that can be learned. We will analyze this quality together. Keep reading.

FROM KYIV TO THE UNITED STATES

In 1992, when Jan was 16, his family was forced to leave Ukraine and move to California. The Koums lived in a San Jose apartment.

In addition to the small jobs, he did to support himself and helped his family …

Jan enrolled at San Jose State University but failed to graduate because he had to focus on work. In 1997 he met Brian Acton.

First, he worked at Yahoo and tried to get into Facebook: the door was slammed in his face several times by the most famous social media team.

Facebook didn’t know it had rejected one of the brightest minds in this social tech age.

What did he do at Yahoo? He helped customers set up their emails and tried to solve their problems.

During his university career, he met the two founders of Napster: Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker.

Those influences certainly played a positive role in Jan’s stroke of genius that led him to create an app that today people use for fun and professionally.

IN 2009, WHATSAPP IS CREATED

In 2009, together with Brian Acton, he founded WhatsApp: an instant messaging app that allows users to send text messages and images for free.

The idea the two had was to offer an alternative service to the classic SMS of old cell phones.

The first apps that Jan and his partner try to do are too similar to the others already on the market and no one trusts the two startuppers.

But they don’t give up.

They try again and the third app, WhatsApp finally succeeds. The service grows exponentially and reaches about one billion active users per month in 2016.

In February 2014, the most famous social network in the world, Facebook, acquires WhatsApp for 19 billion dollars. A record figure for an app.