California techies dominate our first ever list of the nation’s most successful young entrepreneurs, reaffirming the American Dream and proving yet again that there is no better way right now to get rich fast than to go west and convince venture investors to back your most ambitious ideas. Some will fail but those who succeed can do so fantastically, regardless of age. In fact, of the 40 most successful under age 40, all of whom have net worths of $400 million or more, 39 are men, 34 made their money in the tech sector, and 33 live in California. Twenty-one are billionaires. And many either created or work for some of today’s hottest tech companies, including Uber, AirBnB, Fitbit, GitHub, Instacart and Pinterest.
Among the very few who got rich outside of the valley are golf pro Tiger Woods, who earned most of his money from sponsorships and other deals, not the sport itself, and Charlie Chanaratsopon, whose $550 million (sales) accessories chain Charming Charlie now has more than 350 stores including its first in Manhattan.
Eight of the nation’s wealthiest entrepreneurs under 40 can trace their wealth back to Facebook, including the three richest and the group’s youngest. Mark Zuckerberg leads the pack with a net worth of $47.1 billion, more than four times as much as the second person in the ranks, his cofounder and college pal, Dustin Moskovitz. At number 3 is Jan Koum, who came to America at age 16 and got an apartment through government housing. He started WhatsApp, now the world’s biggest mobile messaging service with 800 million users in 2009 and sold it to Facebook for about $22 billion in cash and stock in 2014.
Eight of the nation’s wealthiest entrepreneurs under 40 can trace their wealth back to Facebook, including the three richest and the group’s youngest. Mark Zuckerberg leads the pack with a net worth of $47.1 billion, more than four times as much as the second person in the ranks, his cofounder and college pal, Dustin Moskovitz. At number 3 is Jan Koum, who came to America at age 16 and got an apartment through government housing. He started WhatsApp, now the world’s biggest mobile messaging service with 800 million users in 2009 and sold it to Facebook for about $22 billion in cash and stock in 2014. 
The list’s youngest member is Palmer Luckey. He was just 21 years old when he sold his virtual reality equipment company, Oculus, to Facebook for $2.3 billion in July 2014. Luckey, who still works at Oculus but has no job title, still lives with six roommates with whom he likes to play videogames, despite a recent net worth of $700 million. Luckey is one of half a dozen in the ranks who are still in their 20s.
The list’s youngest member is Palmer Luckey. He was just 21 years old when he sold his virtual reality equipment company, Oculus, to Facebook for $2.3 billion in July 2014. Luckey, who still works at Oculus but has no job title, still lives with six roommates with whom he likes to play videogames, despite a recent net worth of $700 million. Luckey is one of half a dozen in the ranks who are still in their 20s.
Only 2 of those, though, are billionaires, Snapchat’s founders Evan Spiegel (who is dating former Victoria Secret’s model Miranda Kerr) and Bobby Murphy, who famously turned down a $3 billion offer from Facebook back in late 2013. Less than two years later, the company raised $538 million in new funding in May, reportedly valuing the company at about $16 billion. Now just months later, there are reports that one of its investors, Fidelity, wrote down the value of its investment by 25% in November.
That’s nothing compared to the scrutiny that Parker Conrad , CEO of Zenefits, who ranked no. 22 among the top 40, has been getting lately. One of its investors marked down the HR cloud computing company’s valuation by 48% and Parker was forced to admit that sales are growing more slowly than expected. But don’t count out Conrad, who survived testicular cancer and also being fired by his college pal and cofounder at an earlier startup.
Elizabeth Holmes, the only woman to make the cut, quit Stanford at age 19 to start a blood testing company. Now a dozen years later she and her company are going through their own set of adolescent angst. In a setback, the FDA told Holmes in September that her company, Theranos, was using an unapproved blood collection device. It subsequently stated it was voluntarily suspending the use of its “nanotainer,” until it gets clearance.
All of these problems could just be growing pains, or signs of a bubble. It’s too early to tell, which is one reason why Forbes values companies using the valuation set by the latest institutional fundraising rounds. Meanwhile Facebook famously went on its own roller coaster ride in the months before and after its IPO, as many pundits questioned its valuation. The stock has continued to soar, elevating Zuckerberg, at age 31, to 7th richest person in the world.
The one thing all of these entrepreneurs have on their side is time. They could build and lose many fortunes in the weeks, months and decades to come.
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