Facebook Rejected His Job Application. So He Built Something They Had to Buy for $19 Billion.

The Rejections

In May 2009, Brian Acton — a veteran software engineer who had spent 11 years at Yahoo — applied for a job at Twitter. He didn't get it. On May 23, he tweeted: "Got turned down by Twitter too. No big deal. Would have been a long commute."

A few months later, in August 2009, he applied to Facebook. Same result. On August 3, he tweeted: "Facebook turned me down. It was a great opportunity to connect with some fantastic people. Looking forward to life's next adventure."

Both tweets are still public. They remain two of the most unintentionally prophetic things ever posted on the internet.

The Next Adventure

Later that year, Acton teamed up with Jan Koum, a former Yahoo colleague. Together they founded WhatsApp — a simple, ad-free messaging app. Koum built the first version. Acton provided early funding from his savings. The app launched in November 2009.

WhatsApp grew explosively. By 2014, it had over 450 million monthly active users, processing more messages per day than the entire global SMS network. It had 55 employees.

The Acquisition

On February 19, 2014, Facebook announced it was acquiring WhatsApp for approximately $19 billion — $4 billion in cash, roughly $12 billion in Facebook stock, and $3 billion in restricted stock units. At the time, it was the largest acquisition of a venture-backed company in history.

Brian Acton's share made him a billionaire. The company that wouldn't give him a job had to buy his company instead — for a price that valued each of WhatsApp's 55 employees at roughly $345 million.