30 Richest Millennial Entrepreneurs

To identify the richest millennial entrepreneurs in the world, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed a wealth of sources, including news sites Forbes, Bloomberg, and Wealth-X


BEAM Team

10 Jan, 2018

30 Richest Millennial Entrepreneurs | BEAMSTART News

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Millennials tend to get a bad reputation from older generations as entitled, self-centered, and periodically lazy. Not all millennials fit those categorizations, however. In fact, 3.2% of the ultra-wealthy global population falls within the millennial age range — not bad considering their relatively young age and the time it takes to accumulate such great wealth. The 30 millennials listed here did not inherit a business from their families — they are all self-made entrepreneurs.

To identify the richest millennial entrepreneurs in the world, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed a slew of credible sources, most notably Forbes, Bloomberg, and Wealth-X, to find people with the greatest to-date net worth. We used Pew Research Center’s definition of a millennial — those born between 1981 and 1997. Those above the age of 36 years old were not considered.

Of the 30 richest millennials, 25 are American. The outliers include Irish brothers John and Patrick Collison, who created Stripe, a company that enables businesses and individuals to easily accept payments over the internet. Also among the non-American group is Kirill Shamalov of Russia, Liu Ruopeng of China, and Eduardo Saverin, formerly of Brazil and currently of Singapore.

Of the 30 richest millennials, 18 are billionaires. Among the billionaires, there were several from the same company, which is indicative of how successful the companies these young entrepreneurs founded truly are. For example, the top three millennial billionaires gained most of their wealth from Facebook. The next three got rich from Airbnb, two from Snap Inc., two from Stripe, and two from Pinterest.

If real-time net worth was not listed, we included his or her most recent net worth. We excluded those born before 1981 to correspond with Pew Research Center’s classification of a millennial. Those who inherited their wealth and business from their parent(s) or grandparent(s) were not considered. The age of each entrepreneur is calculated as of January, 4 2018.


30. Kyle Vogt

Source: Steve Jennings / Getty Images

> Net worth: $270 million

> Company: Cruise Automation

> Birth year: 32 years old

Though Kyle Vogt initially made his name from co creating Justin.tv, which led to the video game streaming site Twitch, he made most of his money in the auto industry. Vogt founded driverless car company Cruise Automation, which General Motors purchased for $1 billion.


29. Jessica Alba

Source: Gage Skidmore / Flickr

> Net worth: $340 million

> Company: The Honest Company

> Birth year: 36 years old

Though Jessica Alba is best known as an actress, she’s made a fortune from her household goods brand The Honest Company. The retailer is expanding its reach and you can soon find the company’s products in stores such as Whole Foods and Target.


28. Chris Wanstrath

Source: Brian Ach / Getty Images

> Net worth: $360 million

> Company: GitHub

> Birth year: 32 years old

Computer technology has helped nearly all entrepreneurs on this list succeed, and Chris Wanstrath’s coding platform GitHub, which he launched with Tom Preston-Werner in 2008, is expanding access to even more people. GitHub lets programmers store their code and share it with other users worldwide.


27. Apoorva Mehta

Source: Steve Jennings / Getty Images

> Net worth: $360 million

> Company: Instacart

> Birth year: 31 years old

People clearly love being able to avoid a trip to the grocery store, as evidenced by the success of Apoorva Mehta’s Instacart service. The company is just one of many grocery delivery services, but it seems to be standing out as it was recently valued at $2 billion.


26. Arash Ferdowsi

Source: TechCrunch / Wikimedia Commons

> Net worth: $400 million

> Company: Dropbox

> Birth year: 32 years old

Arash Ferdowsi helped found data storage company Dropbox in 2007 and was its chief technology officer until 2016. Though he is no longer on Dropbox’s board, Ferdowsi reportedly owns 5% of the multi-billion dollar company.


25. Joe Lonsdale

Source: Brian Ach / Getty Images

> Net worth: $425 million

> Company: 8VC

> Birth year: 35 years old

Joe Lonsdale has faced many highs and lows during his career in Silicon Valley, but things appear to be stabilizing now. After helping run big companies like big-data company Palantir and the financial-planning software business Addepar with mixed results, the 35-year-old now helps run venture capital fund 8VC as well as sits on the board of companies like Hyperloop One.


24. Chris Hughes

Source: Thos Robinson / Getty Images

> Net worth: $430 million

> Company: Facebook

> Birth year: 34 years old

The career of Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes has been a mixed bag since he left the company in 2007. He helped Barack Obama win the 2008 presidential election by strengthening the campaign’s online organization. Hughes also purchased The New Republic magazine in 2012, but he sold it after gutting its editorial staff and suffering years of financial losses.


23. Paul Sciarra

Source: William Murphy / Flickr

> Net worth: $550 million

> Company: Pinterest

> Birth year: 36 years old

Paul Sciarra spent just two years at Pinterest after helping create the media cataloging and collection site. Still, the 36-year-old stake in the $11 billion company is enough to keep him on the list.


22. Vivek Ramaswamy

Source: Lisa Lake / Getty Images

> Net worth: $600 million

> Company: Roivant Sciences

> Birth year: 32 years old

Biotech’s wunderkind Vivek Ramaswamy is taking the pharmaceutical world by storm — at least financially if not yet with treatments proven in the lab. His company, Roivant Sciences, raised more than $1 billion in one round of funding in 2017.


21. Adam D’Angelo

Source: Scott Olson / Getty Images

> Net worth: $600 million

> Company: Quora

> Birth year: 33 years old

After serving on the board of Facebook, Adam D’Angelo struck out on his own and founded Quora. The crowdsourced information site has millions of monthly visitors and is valued at $900 million by investors.


20. Palmer Luckey

Source: Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images

> Net worth: $730 million

> Company: Oculus

> Birth year: 25 years old

One of the youngest people to ever make a big splash in Silicon Valley, Palmer Luckey sold his virtual reality company Oculus VR to Facebook for $2 billion. Though alleged political donations to anti-Hillary Clinton sites seem to have gotten him blackballed from the tech world, Luckey is working on a new startup relating to military defense technology.


19. Peter Szulczewski

Source: Wish / Facebook

> Net worth: $920 million

> Company: Wish

> Birth year: 36 years old

Peter Szulczewski has proven to be successful at anything he tries. After working as an engineer at Google, he founded online ad company ContextLogic, then really struck it big when he founded online shopping site Wish. Wish is reportedly valued at more than $4.5 billion.


18. Evan Sharp

Source: Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images

> Net worth: $1.04 billion

> Company: Pinterest

> Birth year: 35 years old

Evan Sharp, Paul Sciarra, and Ben Silbermann first founded a company Cold Brew Labs before coming up with the idea for Pinterest. The site’s popularity has grown dramatically, and Sharp still is chief creative officer at the company valued at $11 billion.


17. Patrick Collison

Source: Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images

> Net worth: $1 billion

> Company: Stripe

> Birth year: 29 years old

As small businesses have emerged in recent years, they also needed a way to accept online payments from their customers. Thanks to Stripe, founded by Irish brothers Patrick and John Collison, there is now another online payment platform. Though both have an equal fortune from Stripe, older brother Patrick is CEO.


16. John Collison

Source: Brian Ach / Getty Images

> Net worth: $1 billion

> Company: Stripe

> Birth year: 27 years old

John Collison and his brother Patrick have worked to improve online money transactions for years. The two founded Auctomatic, which facilitated purchases on eBay and Amazon, and sold it in 2008. Then, while on vacation, they came up with the idea for online payment service Stripe, which made them even richer.


15. Drew Houston

Source: Drew Angerer / Getty Images

> Net worth: $1.04 billion

> Company: Dropbox

> Birth year: 34 years old

Drew Houston helped found file-sharing company Dropbox in 2007 and is still its CEO. He owns an estimated 13% of the company, which was valued at $10 billion in 2014.


14. Kirill Shamalov

Source: sibur.ru

> Net worth: $1.25 billion

> Company: Sibur

> Birth year: 35 years old

Kirill Shamalov is the only Russian on this list. He may be the son-in-law of Russian President Vladimir Putin, though that has not been confirmed. What we do know is he owns a large stake in petrochemical company Sibur and is the company’s vice president.


13. Ryan Graves

Source: ryangraves / Twitter

> Net worth: $1.26 billion

> Company: Uber

> Birth year: 34 years old

Ryan Graves’ story is one of incredible luck, as he became Uber’s first employee after responding to a tweet from former CEO and founder Travis Kalanick in 2010. He went on to hold numerous positions at Uber, including CEO, general manager, president, and senior vice president of global operations. Graves now only serves as the company’s board director.


12. Liu Ruopeng

Source: longsheng.com

> Net worth: $1.3 billion

> Company: Zhejiang Longsheng Auto Parts

> Birth year: 35 years old

Holding graduate degrees from Duke University, Liu Ruopeng is a renowned Chinese entrepreneur and businessman. He gained a majority of his net worth from a Chinese car company where he is the chairman.


11. Kevin Systrom

Source: Vivien Killilea / Getty Images

> Net worth: $1.55 billion

> Company: Instagram

> Birth year: 34 years old

Kevin Systrom co-founded social network Instagram with Michel Krieger in 2010. Much to the surprise of the once record store Boston Beat DJ, the photo-sharing app has gained incredible attraction since its inception and was sold to Facebook for $1 billion in stock and cash in 2012. As of September 2017, Instagram had 800 million monthly users.


10. Ben Silbermann

Source: Steve Jennings / Getty Images

> Net worth: $1.57 billion

> Company: Pinterest

> Birth year: 35 years old

Ben Silbermann is the CEO of the popular photo-bookmarking site Pinterest, which is valued at more than $12 billion. Along with Evan Sharp and Paul Sciarra, Silbermann co-founded the desktop version of the site in March 2010. At 35 years old, Silbermann is worth just over $1.5 billion.


9. Evan Spiegel

Source: Larry Busacca / Getty Images

> Net worth: $3.3 billion

> Company: Snap Inc.

> Birth year: 27 years old

Evan Spiegel co-founded Snap Inc, a multimedia, messaging social network, with Bobby Murphy in 2011 while at Stanford University. At 27 years old, Spiegel is not only one of the youngest billionaires in America, but also one of the youngest public company CEOs. Some 178 million people use Snapchat, the company’s main product, on a daily basis.


8. Bobby Murphy

Source: Drew Angerer / Getty Images

> Net worth: $3.3 billion

> Company: Snap Inc.

> Birth year: 29 years old

One of the wealthiest millennial entrepreneurs, Bobby Murphy is co-founder and chief technology officer of Snap Inc., known for its main product Snapchat. The company went public in March 2017. Since then, Snap shares have struggled, falling 40% to $14.68 in intraday trading Jan. 5.


7. Rishi Shah

Source: RishiShah / Twitter

> Net worth: $3.6 billion

> Company: Outcome Health

> Birth year: 31 years old

Rishi Shah is among one of the several successful millennials on this list to have dropped out of college and made a fortune. After withdrawing from Northwestern University in Illinois, Shah founded health-care media company Outcome Health in 2006. However, the company may be in trouble. This past October, The Wall Street Journal interviewed former employees and advertisers who claimed Outcome employees had misled pharmaceutical companies by charging them for ad placements on a greater number of video screens than the company had installed.


6. Joe Gebbia

Source: Stuart C. Wilson / Getty Images

> Net worth: $3.8 billion

> Company: Airbnb

> Birth year: 36 years old

Online marketplace and hospitality service Airbnb is heavily utilized by young millennials who are trying to save some cash rather than forking out hundreds of dollars on pricey hotel rooms. Joe Gebbia is one of three co-founders of the company, which allows customers to lease or rent short-term lodging in apartments, homes, cabins, and other housing situations worldwide. The company was recently valued at $31 billion.


5. Brian Chesky

Source: Bryan Bedder / Getty Images for Airbnb

> Net worth: $3.8 billion

> Company: Airbnb

> Birth year: 36 years old

CEO of Airbnb Brian Chesky attended Rhode Island School of Design in 1999 where he later met Gebbia. Chesky, a former bodybuilder and industrial designer, cofounded Airbnb in August 2008 alongside Gebbia and Nathan Blecharczyk. The peer-to-peer room and home rental company is currently valued at $31 billion.


4. Nathan Blecharczyk

Source: Mike Windle / Getty Images for Airbnb

> Net worth: $3.8 billion

> Company: Airbnb

> Birth year: 34 years old

Nathan Blecharczyk is the chief strategy officer and chairman of Airbnb China. Blecharczyk’s career as an entrepreneur started well before Airbnb — he started his own online marketing company in high school with clients in over 20 countries. He later graduated with a degree in computer science from Harvard University. Blecharczyk co-founded Airbnb, a company today valued at $31 billion, alongside Gebbia and Chesky. The site today helps house over 200 million people in more than 65,000 cities in over 191 countries.


3. Eduardo Saverin

Source: Mike Windle / Getty Images for Airbnb

> Net worth: $10.6 billion

> Company: Facebook

> Birth year: 35 years old

Eduardo Saverin is among the three richest millennial entrepreneurs in the world, all of which are co-founders of the king of social networks, Facebook. Born in Brazil, Saverin is now a venture capitalist living in Singapore.


2. Dustin Moskovitz

Source: Kimberly White / Getty Images

> Net worth: $14.7 billion

> Company: Facebook, Asana

> Birth year: 33 years old

Thirty-three-year-old Dustin Moskovitz co-founded Facebook alongside Harvard roommate, Mark Zuckerberg in 2004. He left the fast-growing social media company in 2008, claiming he did not want to be an entrepreneur. After leaving Facebook, he co-founded Asana, a workflow software company, with fellow Facebook employee Justin Rosenstein, but most of his net worth is from his small stake in Facebook.


1. Mark Zuckerberg

Source: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

> Net worth: $74.5 billion

> Company: Facebook

> Birth year: 33 years old

Harvard University dropout and CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, is the richest millennial entrepreneur in the world at 33 years old. His net worth of $74.5 billion also makes him the fifth richest person in the world. Zuckerberg founded Facebook in 2004 at the age of 19. Needless to say, the college degree was not necessary.


Author Info:
This article was first published by Cheyenne Buckingham and Grant Suneson on 24/7 Wall St.


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