Early Life and Education
Brian Acton was born in Michigan in 1972. He later moved to Central Florida and graduated from Lake Howell High School. Acton received a full scholarship to study engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, but he left after a year to study at Stanford University. He graduated from Stanford in 1994 with a degree in computer science.
Rise to Success
Acton's career started in 1992 as a systems administrator for Rockwell International. He also worked as a product tester at Apple and Adobe. In 1996, Acton joined Yahoo!, where he worked for nine years. It was at Yahoo! where he met Jan Koum. Acton invested in the dot-com boom and lost millions during the dot-com bubble in 2000. In 2007, Acton and Koum left Yahoo! and traveled throughout South America. In 2009, after being rejected for jobs at Facebook, Acton and Koum co-founded WhatsApp. WhatsApp was acquired by Facebook in February 2014 for $19 billion. Acton left WhatsApp in September 2017. He then founded the Signal Foundation in 2018 to promote secure, encrypted messaging.
Key Business Strategies
Acton's success is largely attributed to WhatsApp's simplicity, focus on user privacy, and end-to-end encryption. His decision to leave WhatsApp due to disagreements over data protection underscores his commitment to these principles. His subsequent investment in Signal reflects a strategic move to foster a secure communication platform. The choice to create a messaging app with an emphasis on privacy helped WhatsApp become a dominant force in the messaging industry.
Philanthropy
Acton and his wife, Tegan, established Wildcard Giving in 2014, which includes three sister foundations: Sunlight Giving, Acton Family Giving, and Solidarity Giving. These foundations support initiatives focused on low-income families, empathy-building, and social justice. The Actons have donated over $1 billion to charitable causes.
