We all know the dream. A few crazy years of startup life is nothing compared to the fame and prestige of a successful IPO. Oh, and the money. Let’s not forget the money!
In Forbes’ global billionaire list last year, 33% of the top 500 were Americans, and 16 of those are our golden boys. (Yup, all men, unfortunately.)
But, which companies have minted the most billionaires over the years? While the wealth was relatively spread out among the companies you would expect, there were three big winners with 3 billionaires each:
- Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg ($13.3B), Dustin Moskovitz ($3.8B), and, theoretically, Eduardo Saverin ($4B)
- Microsoft: Bill Gates ($67B), Steve Ballmer ($15.2B), and Paul Allen ($15B)
- Google: Larry Page ($23B), Sergey Bring ($22.8B), and Eric Schmidt ($8.2B)
Do you think Larry and Sergey sit in their offices and argue over that .2 billion while they plot their next world takeover?
Where are the Twitter guys, you ask? The Forbes data was published before the IPO late last year, but Biz Stone was the only founder to become a billionaire from it.
The moral of the story? Sure, there are billions to be made in tech startups. The percentage of people that get there is pretty low, but if you’re reading this you’re probably a startup founder. You like long odds.
Check out the infographic below from for the full story on who made what and when from the world’s biggest tech companies.
Source: