Like many of you, I last night was stunned to read about a 55-employee company called WhatsApp selling to Facebook for $19 billion. Like me, you probably had the following feelings shoot through your brain: shock, awe, admiration, and jealousy.
But, amidst all the media, one story stuck with me. Scott Kirsner Tweeted out an awesome article from Forbes’ Parmy Olson. In it, she writes this:
[Founder] Jan Koum picked a meaningful spot to sign the $19 billion deal to sell his company…. [He] drove a few blocks from WhatsApp’s discreet headquarters in Mountain View to a disused white building across the railroad tracks, the former North County Social Services office where Koum, 37, once stood in line to collect food stamps.
I didn’t realize that Jan was an immigrant and that his parents have already passed away. I didn’t realize that he was on welfare at one point.
It’s a great article. Only in America.