The Relentless Drive of the Immigrant Edge

A note to young leaders.

When it comes to entrepreneurship, migrants have an edge. They’re hungry. Super hungry.

When Jan Koum was just 16 years old, he left Soviet Ukraine with his mother in search of a better life in the United States. They settled in Mountain View, California, where they lived in a small, government-supported apartment.

They relied on food stamps to get by. Koum mopped floors at a grocery store while his mother worked as a babysitter.

Then … things got even harder.

Shortly after arriving in the US, Koum’s mother was diagnosed with cancer. He cared for her while juggling school and work, but she passed away when Koum was just 24 years old.

Too poor to afford a computer, Koum taught himself how they worked by borrowing manuals from used bookstores, reading them cover to cover, and then returning them.

In 2009, Koum co-founded WhatsApp – a messaging app built on a simple promise: no ads, no games, no frills. Just fast, private communication.

By 2014, WhatsApp had grown organically to hundreds of millions of users – and Facebook acquired it for $19 billion, one of the largest tech acquisitions in history.

But Koum never forgot where he came from.

He insisted that Facebook sign the deal at the very social services office in Mountain View where he and his mother once stood in line for food stamps.

Soon after the deal, Koum donated USD 556 million to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, supporting programs just like the one his family had relied on.

It’s what Nietzsche said: what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.