TechTycoons - TechTycoons

Meet the tycoons behind these tech companies and find out how they did it -how success did not come easy and did not happen overnight.

Stewart Butterfield

Stewart Butterfield is a Canadian entrepreneur, designer, and technologist, known as the co-founder of Flickr and Slack.

Jack Ma

Jack Ma is a Chinese business tycoon, a philanthropist, investor, and the co-founder and executive chairman of Alibaba Group, a multinational conglomerate

Ben Silbermann is an American entrepreneur known as the co-founder and CEO of Pinterest, an online pinboard that allows users to discover and organize images, recipes, home ideas, style inspirations, and many other things.

Sam Altman

Samuel Altman is an American programmer, blogger, entrepreneur, and investor known as the former president of Y Combinator and co-chairman of OpenAI.

Patrrick Collison

Patrick Collison is an Irish entrepreneur known as the co-founder and CEO of Stripe.

Brian Chesky

Brian Chesky is an American entrepreneur known as the co-founder of AiBnB, an online hospitality service that offers accommodation and lodging – primarily homestays.

Kevin Systrom

Kevin Systrom is an American programmer and entrepreneur known as the CEO and co-founder of the photo and video-sharing social networking service Instagram.

Drew Houston

Drew Houston is an American entrepreneur known as the co-founder and CEO of Dropbox, a file hosting service that offers cloud storage, file synchronization, and client software.

Mark Cuban

Mark Cuban is an American businessman and investor known as the owner of the National Basketball Association (NBA)’s Dallas Mavericks. He is also the co-owner of 2929 Entertainment and chairman of AXS TV.

David Karp

David Karp is an American entrepreneur and web developer known as the founder and former CEO of Tumblr, a social networking and microblogging website that allows users to post contents to a short-form blog.

Jack Dorsey

Jack Patrick Dorsey is an American computer programmer and entrepreneur who is known as the co-founder of Twitter, an online news and social networking service that allows users to post and interact with messages called “Tweets”.

Aaron Levie

Aaron Winsor Levie is an American entrepreneur also known as the co-founder and CEO of Box, a cloud-management and file sharing service for businesses.

Alex Karp

Alex Karp is an American businessman and entrepreneur, known as the CEO and co-founder of Palantir Technologies, a software company that specializes in data analytics. Palantir builds software that connects data, technologies, humans and environments.

Sergey Brin

Sergey Brin is an American businessman and internet entrepreneur known as the co-founder of Google, a company that specializes in internet-related services and products, which include online advertising technologies, search engine, cloud computing, software, and hardware.

Jan Koum

Jan Koum is a Ukranian American entrepreneur and computer programmer also known as the co-founder and CEO of WhatsApp, a cross-platform messaging and VOIP service that allows sending of text messages and voice calls, other media, and documents.

Reid Hoffman

Reid Hoffman is an author, businessman, and internet entrepreneur known as the co-founder and executive chairman of LinkedIn, a business and employment-oriented service for professional networking.

Bill Gates

William Henry Gates III is an American business tycoon, entrepreneur, investor, and author known as the founder of Microsoft Corporation – a company that develops and manufactures computer software, consumer electronics, and many other related services.

Larry Ellison

Lawrence Joseph Ellison is an American entrepreneur, businessman, and philanthropist who is known as the co-founder and executive chairman of of Oracle Corporation, a computer technology that specializes in developing and marketing database software and technology, cloud systems, and enterprise software.

Mark Zuckerberg

Mark Elliot Zuckerberg or Mark Zuckerberg is known as a tech entrepreneur, chief executive officer and co-founder of Facebook – a social media platform with over 2.32 billion monthly active users worldwide and Forbes’ Top 4 on World’s Most Valuable Brands of 2018.

Brian Armstrong

Brian Armstrong is an entrepreneur known as the co-founder of coin base, a digital currency exchange.

Aileen Lee

Aileen Lee is one of Silicon Valley’s top female venture capitalists known as the co-founder of Cowboy Ventures.

Logan Green

Logan Green is the co-founder and CEO of Lyft, a transportation company that provides ride-hailing services in San Francisco, California. Green is famous in the business world as he, together with John Zimmer made it to the Business Week’s list of America’s Best Young Entrepreneurs.

Jonah Peretti

Jonah Peretti is an American entrepreneur known as the co-founder and CEO of Buzzfeed, an American Internet media, news and entertainment company.

Toby Sun

Toby Sun is the co-founder and CEO at Lime. He is an entrepreneur, marketer and investor. He is also a bike enthusiast, passionate to revolutionize urban mobility and solve the first and mile transportation challenges. He had 3 past jobs such as PepsiCo, Deloitte and Fosun RZ Capital. He also speaks Cantonese, Chinese and English.

Bom Kim

Bom Kim is the founder of Coupang, an e-commerce giant that is known as one of the fastest e-commerce websites in South Korea. In 2016, he was the youngest person to be on the list of South Korea’s 50 Richest.

Shan-Lyn Ma

Shan-Lyn Ma is the founder and chief executive officer of Zola, an online wedding registry, wedding planner, and retailer.

Lisa Shields

Lisa Shields is the Founder of Hyperwallet Systems Inc., a global outbound payments provider that offers fast, simple, and affordable funds distribution to businesses and their payees.

Cindy Mi

Cindy Mi is an entrepreneur also known as the founder and CEO of the online-class startup called VIPKid.

Nicky Goulimis

Nicky Goulimis is an entrepreneur known as the co-founder and COO of Nova Credit, the world’s cross-border consumer reporting agency that gives access to credit reports and consumers from around the world.

Ritu Narayan

Ritu Narayan is known as the CEO and one of the founders of Zūm. Zum is the most-trusted and biggest platform for kids’ transportation. She received a Gold Stevie Award in 2018, Awards for Women in Business, hailed as the world’s premier business awards. Awards for Women in Business.

Emily Weiss

Emily Weiss is a beauty blogger and mogul, she started a beauty blog “Into the Gloss” and founded Glossier. She was included in Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in 2017 and Fortune’s 40 Under 40 in 2018.

Julia Hartz

Julia Hartz is an American entrepreneur, and investor, known as the co-founder and CEO of Eventbrite, a global ticketing and event technology platform.

Max Levchin

Maksymilian Rafailovych “Max” Levchin is a Ukrainian-born American computer scientist knowna s the founder and CEO of Affirm, a financing alternative to credit cards and other credit-payment products that offers instant financing for online purchases to be paid in fixed monthly installments.

Peter Thiel

Peter Andreas Thiel is an American entrepreneur, venture capitalist, philanthropist, political activist, author, and former attorney known as the co-founder of PayPal, company operating a worldwide online payments system that supports online money transfers and serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper methods like checks and money orders.

Reed Hastings

Reed Hastings is an American entrepreneur known as the co-founder and CEO of Netflix, a subscription-based media-service provider streaming over-the-top media which offers online streaming of a library of films and television programs, including those produced in-house.

Elon Musk

Elon Reeve Musk is a South African American engineer and technology entrepreneur who is known as the founder and CEO of SpaceX, an aerospace manufacturer and space transportation service company. Musk is also the co-founder and CEO of Tesla Inc., an automotive and energy company that specializes in manufacturing electric cars and solar panel manufacturing through its subsidiary, SolarCity.

Jeffrey Bezos

Jeffrey Preston Bezos is an American technology entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist known as the founder, chairman, CEO, and president of Amazon – a multinational technology company that focuses in e-commerce, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence.

Rich Barton

Richard Barton is an American entrepreneur and the chief executive officer of Zillow Group, an online real estate database company.

Naval Ravikant

Naval Ravikant is the CEO and co-founder of AngelList, a U.S. website for startups, angel investors, and job-seekers looking to work at startups.

Auren Hoffman

Auren Raphael Hoffman is an American entrepreneur, angel investor and author, known as the co-founder of RapLeaf and Retargeter.

Esther Dyson

Esther Dyson is a Swiss-born American journalist, investor, businesswoman, commentator, and philanthropist, known as a leading angel investor who focused on breakthrough efficacy in healthcare, government transparency, digital technology, biotechnology, and space.

Alexis Ohanian

Alexis Kerry Ohanian is an American Internet entrepreneur and investor also known as the co-founder and executive chairman of the social news website Reddit.

Elan Gil

Elad Gil is a serial entrepreneur, an investor, operating executive, and advisor to private companies including Wish, Stripe, Square, Pinterest, OpenDoor, Instacart, Gusto, Checkr, Coinbase, and Airbnb.

Matt Mullenweg

Matthew Charles “Matt” Mullenweg is an American online social media entrepreneur and web developer best known for developing the free and open-source web software WordPress.

Paul Buchheit

Paul T. Buchheit is an American computer entrepreneur and engineer. He was the creator and lead developer of Gmail. He developed the original prototype of Google AdSense as part of his work on Gmail.

David O. Sacks

David Sacks is an entrepreneur and investor in internet technology firms. He is the general partner of Craft Ventures, a venture capital fund he co-founded in late 2017. Sacks was also the founding COO and product leader of PayPal, Founder and CEO of Yammer. His angel investments include Facebook, Uber, SpaceX, Palantir Technologies, Airbnb and Houzz.

Eric Yuan

Eric Yuan is a Chinese internet entrepreneur, founder, business executive, and investor from Xuzhou best known as the founder and CEO of Zoom company.

Susan Wojcicki

Susan Wojcicki is a Polish-American technology executive who is the CEO of YouTube since 2014 and was also involved in the founding of Google, and became its first marketing manager in 1999.

Kathryn Minshew

Kathryn Minshew is the CEO and co-founder of The Muse, a New York City-based online career platform.

Jack Groetzinger

Jack Groetzinger is the co-founder of SeatGeek, a mobile-focused ticket platform that enables users to buy and sell tickets for live sports, concerts and theater events.

Mario Schlosser

Mario Schlosser is the CEO and co-founder of Oscar, a health-insurance start-up that uses technology, design, and data to help humanize and simplify healthcare.

Mark Pincus

Mark Jonathan Pincus is an American Internet entrepreneur known as the founder of Zynga, a mobile social gaming company.

Chris Dixon

Chris Dixon is an American entrepreneur, investor, and a general partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, he also previously worked at eBay. He is also the co-founder and former CEO of Hunch, a website that developed a collective intelligence recommender system that used decision trees to make decisions based on users’ interest.

Hiten Shah

Hiten Shah is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of KissMetrics, a customer engagement automation platform designed to help truly understand the behaviours of customer-base and drive higher levels of engagement.

Tracy Young

Tracy is the co-founder and CEO of PlanGrid, a construction productivity software that provides real-time updates and seamless file synchronization over Wi-Fi and cellular networks.

Paul Graham

Paul Graham is an English-born computer scientist, entrepreneur, venture capitalist, author, and essayist. He is best known for Lisp, his former startup Viaweb, co-founding the influential startup accelerator and seed capital firm Y Combinator, his blog, and Hacker News.

Tim Sweeney

Timothy D. Sweeney is an American computer game programmer known as the founder of Epic Games, an American video game and software development company.

Adi Tatarko

Adi Tatarko is the CEO and co-founder of Houzz, the leading platform for home design and remodelling, connecting both professionals and homeowners via mobile, local and social tools.

Tony Xu

Tony Xu is the co-founder and CEO of DoorDash, a technology company that uses logistics services to offer food delivery from restaurants on-demand.

Kenneth Lin

Kenneth Lin is an American tech entrepreneur best known as the CEO of Credit Karma, an online credit score monitoring service.

David Katzman

David Katzman is the founder and Managing Partner of Camelot Venture Group, a private investment group that invests primarily in online direct-to-consumer companies, technology and financial services. He also is a member of the Board of Directors for Sharper Image and Smile Direct Club.

Ryan Petersen

Ryan Petersen is the founder of Flexport, a freight forwarding and customs brokerage company.

William Shu

William Shu is an American businessman also known as the co-founder and CEO of Deliveroo, a British online food delivery company where customers can order high-quality takeaway online from top restaurants, fast delivery straight to customers’ home or office.

Adam D’Angelo

Adam D’Angelo is an American internet entrepreneur of Italian descent. He is best known as the co-founder and CEO of Quora, a platform to ask questions and connect with people who contribute unique insights and quality answers.

Joseph DeSimone

Joseph M. DeSimone is an American chemist, inventor and entrepreneur best known as the co-founder and CEO of Carbon, an American technology company that manufactures and develops 3D printers utilizing the Continuous Liquid Interface Production (CLIP) process, with their first commercial product being the Carbon M1 Printer.

Anne Wojcicki

Anne E. Wojcicki is an American entrepreneur and the co-founder and chief executive officer of the personal genomics company 23andMe, a privately held personal genomics and biotechnology company.

Kristo Kaarmann

Kristo Kaarmann is the co-founder of TransferWise, a peer-to-peer international money transfer business and a first of its kind.

Jimmy Wales

Jimmy Donal “Jimbo” Wales is an American Internet entrepreneur. He is known as a co-founder of the online non-profit encyclopedia Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia with exclusively free content and no ads (though donations are accepted), based on open collaboration through a model of content editing using web-based applications such as web browsers, called wiki.

Craig Newmark

Craig Newmark is an American Internet entrepreneur and philanthropist best known for being the founder of the website Craigslist, a classified advertisement website with sections devoted to jobs, housing, for sale, items wanted, services, community service, gigs, résumés, and discussion forums.

Peter Reinhardt

Peter Reinhardt is a business tycoon known as the CEO and co-founder at Segment, a customer data management and analytics solution that helps a company make sense of their customer data coming from various sources. The app integrates with other apps, pulling data from these apps into a single platform.

Maxim Lobovsky

Maxim Lobovsky is a businessman known as the co-founder of Formlabs, a 3D printing technology developer and manufacturer.

Leslie Stretch

Leslie Stretch is the new CEO at Medallia. Medallia, provides Software-as-a-Service Customer Experience Management and Enterprise Feedback Management software as well as services to hospitality, retail, financial services, high-tech, and business-to-business companies internationally.

Matthew Prince

Matthew Prince is the co-founder and CEO of CloudFlare, a U.S. company that provides content delivery network services, DDoS mitigation, Internet security and distributed domain name server services.

George Kurtz

George Kurtz is the co-founder and CEO of CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity company. He was also the founder of Foundstone and chief technology officer of McAfee.

Seth Birnbaum

Seth is the founder of EverQuote and leads all business, strategy, and growth of the company. EverQuote is a free service that helps consumers compare car insurance quotes.

Andrew Sutherland

Andrew Sutherland is the founder of Quizlet, a mobile and web-based study application that allows students to study information via learning tools and games.

Carlos Slim

Carlos Slim Helú is a Mexican business magnate known as the owner of América Movil, a Mexican telecommunications corporation headquartered in Mexico City, Mexico. It is the eighth largest mobile network operator in terms of equity subscribers and one of the largest corporations in the world.

Michael Dell

Michael Saul Dell is an American businessman, investor, philanthropist, and author also known as the founder and CEO of Dell Technologies, one of the world’s largest technology infrastructure companies that develops, sells, repairs, and supports computers and related products and services.

Pierre Omidyar

Pierre Morad Omidyar is an American entrepreneur, businessman, and philanthropist. He is the founder of eBay and served as its chairman from 1998 to 2015.

Ma Huateng

Ma Huateng, also known as Pony Ma, is a Chinese investor, politician, engineer, philanthropist, internet and technology entrepreneur who is known as the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Tencent – one of the largest Internet and technology companies, and the biggest investment, gaming and entertainment conglomerates in the world.

Robert Reffkin

Robert Reffkin is an American entrepreneur known as the founder and CEO of Compass – a real estate technology company that provides software to real estate agents.

Eric Wu

Eric Wu is the co-founder and CEO of Opendoor, a website created for people who would like to buy, sell, or trade in their home. Opendoor claims to simplify the process and make the biggest financial transaction most people make in their lives more certain and less stressful.

Ben Horowitz

Benjamin Abraham Horowitz is an American investor, businessman, blogger, author, and technology entrepreneur also known as the co-founder and CEO of the enterprise software company Opsware, which was acquired by Hewlett-Packard in 2007.

Steve Wozniak

Stephen Gary “Woz” Wozniak is a Polish-American inventor, programmer, an electronics engineer, and technology entrepreneur who is the co-founder of Apple Inc., a company that designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics, computer software, and online services.

Bobby Murphy

Robert Cornelius Murphy is an American Internet entrepreneur and software engineer, known as the co-founder and the Chief Technology Officer of the social media company Snap Inc.

Dennis Crowley

Dennis Crowley is an American internet entrepreneur known as the co-founder of the social networking sites Dodgeball and Foursquare.

Abhishek Mehta

Abhishek Mehta is the CEO of Tresata, a predictive analytics company redefining business with a deep understanding of customer behavior.

Tiago Paiva

Tiago Paiva is the CEO and founder of Talkdesk, Inc., a cloud-based contact center and AI software provider.

Keyvan Mohajer

Keyvan Mohajer is a Canadian entrepreneur and computer scientist who is known as the founder and CEO of SoundHound, an audio and speech recognition company that develops voice-recognition, natural language understanding, sound-recognition and search technologies.