Jan Koum immigrated to California from Ukraine at age 16. His family lived in a small apartment, relying on government assistance. His mother cleaned houses while he taught himself computer programming. After years working at Yahoo, he left and spent time traveling and playing ultimate frisbee, unsure what to do next. When the iPhone App Store launched, he saw an opportunity but couldn’t afford to build a company. He was living off savings and contemplating going back to work.
The Turning Point
In 2009, Koum bought an iPhone and realized the app store would create a new industry. He wanted to build a messaging app that respected privacy—no ads, no games, just communication. His friend Brian Acton, also from Yahoo, joined him. They borrowed money from Acton’s savings and built WhatsApp in a tiny office. For years, almost nobody used it. They nearly shut down multiple times. Then, in 2011, WhatsApp hit the top 20 apps in the US App Store, and growth exploded.
The Strategy
Koum’s strategy was radical simplicity: no ads, no frills, just reliable messaging. They charged $1 per year after the first year free—a sustainable model that aligned with user interests. They obsessed over reliability and speed, building infrastructure that could handle billions of messages. They refused to collect user data or sell to advertisers. This privacy-first approach resonated globally, especially in countries where telecom SMS rates were expensive.
The Results
In 2014, Facebook acquired WhatsApp for $19 billion—one of the largest tech acquisitions ever. At the time, WhatsApp had 450 million users and a team of just 55 people. Jan Koum signed the deal on the door of the welfare office where he once stood in line for food stamps. Today, WhatsApp has over 2 billion users worldwide, making it one of the most-used apps on the planet.
