The Economic Times

Before selling WhatsApp for $19 billion, co-founder Jan Koum once relied on food stamps to feed his family. Years later, he signed the deal in the same office where he collected them

Jan Koum moved to the US with his mother when he was 16, and his family relied on food stamps and government assistance to survive. Years later, he built WhatsApp, the messaging app used by people around the world, and sold it to Facebook for $19 billion. But the deal had a deeply personal connection to his past as he chose to sign the agreement at the former social services office where he once collected food stamps.