2007
Brian Acton and Jan Koum left Yahoo in November 2007 and took extended time off.
“Brian and Jan have finally kind of had enough and they both leave right at the same”
Topic
Brian Acton
7 facts from 1 episode, in date order. These are what speakers said on the shows, each linked to the moment it was said. They aren't independently verified.
2008
Both Brian Acton and Jan Koum were rejected when they applied for jobs at Facebook around 2008, and Acton tweeted about it.
“And they are both rejected for jobs at Facebook. Brian even tweets about it.”
2009
WhatsApp raised a $250,000 angel round from former Yahoo friends and co-workers, and Brian Acton joined as a co-founder with roughly a 20 percent stake.
“So they put together $250,000 all from former friends and co-workers.”
2009
Brian Acton proposed charging 99 cents for the WhatsApp app to slow growth that was straining servers and to create a business model.
“what if we charge 99 cents for the app in the app store”
2017
After leaving WhatsApp in September 2017, Brian Acton donated $50 million to the Signal organization, which makes an open-source encrypted messaging app.
“He immediately donates $50 million to an organization called Signal that is essentially making an open source and to end encrypted WhatsApp competitor.”
Undated
Brian Acton, a Stanford computer science graduate, joined Yahoo as employee number 44.
“after graduation, he joins Yahoo as employee number 44 in the really early days”
Undated
Brian Acton became chief architect of Project Panama, a Yahoo project to re-architect how its search and search ads worked.
“He ends up becoming the chief architect of Project Panama within Yahoo”
Episodes