These 10 student-founded startups are most valuable tech biggies now

Young founders and entrepreneurs aspiring to start companies while at school or college have considerably more resources that exist for them. Students willing to learn how to build companies from scratch can get necessary training from fast-track programs that let them gain valuable early-stage experience.

With many opportunities accessible for them, student entrepreneurship is incredible these days. Student founders have a space for them in the startup ecosystem. Among the most inconic student entrepreneurs, we have Bill Gates of Microsoft, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and others. They dropped out to build their companies into tech giants.

That said, check out these 10 most valuable tech startups founded by students that have grown into big companies from Inc.com.

Microsoft (US)

Founders: Bill Gates, Paul Allen
Total Funding: €10.9 million
Valuation: $48 million to $72 million
Founded year: 1975

Why its hot: Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen from Harvard University to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800. In the 1980s, the company progressed to dominate the personal computer OS market with MS-DOS followed by Microsoft Windows. The organisation has made a number of corporate acquisitions over the years with LinkedIn being the largest one in late 2016.

Facebook (US)

Founders: Chris Hughes, Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin, Mark Zuckerberg
Funding: €1.9 billion
Valuation: $230.0 billion
Founded year: 2004

Why its hot: Facebook is an American social media company founded by Mark Zuckerberg and fellow students from Harvard University. It is one of the big tech companies in the world. Initially, it was meant for the internal communication of Harvard students and later expanded to become a popular social network. Facebook held its initial public offering (IPO) in 2012.

 

Yahoo! (US)

Founders: David Filo, Jerry Yang
Funding: €6.2 million
Valuation: $4.5 billion
Founded Year: 1994

Why its hot: Yahoo! Is an American web services provider. The company as founded by Jerry Yang and David Filo from Standford University. Yahoo! carries the credits of being one of the pioneers of the early internet era. Since the late 2000s, the company started declining and most of its internet business was acquired by Verizon Communications. The company was widely used as a news and media website with over 7 billion views per month in 2016.

Reddit (US)

Founders: Alexis Ohanian, Steve Huffman
Funding: €500 million
Valuation: $3.0 billion
Founded Year: 2005

Why its hot: Reddit is a social news aggregation, web content rating and discussion website founded by Alexis Ohanian and Steve Huffman from the University of Virginia. Registered members can submit content to the site in the form of images, text posts, and links. The posts are organised into user-created boards called subreddits as per the subject. Reddit has numerous administrators, who spend resources on moderate the site. In July 2019, Reddit was ranked the 5th most visited website in the US and 13th in the world.

WordPress (US)

Founders: Matt Mullenweg
Founded Year: 2003

Why its hot: WordPress is a content management system (CMS) based on MySQL and PHP founded by Matt Mullenweg from the University of Houston. It features a template system and a plugin architecture. It is mostly used by bloggers but also supports other types of web content such as media galleries, mailing lists, online stores, and forums. WordPress is the most popular blogs including CNN, The New York Times, Ebay, Mashable, etc.

Google (US)

Founders: Larry Page, Sergey Brin
Funding: €64 million
Valuation: $689 billion
Founded Year: 1998

Why its hot: Google specialises in internet-related services and products including cloud computing, software, hardware, search engine, and online advertising technologies. The company is one of the Big Four technology companies along with Facebook, Apple, and Amazon. It was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Ph.D. students at Standford University. The initial public offering (IPO) took place in 2004 and became a leading subsidiary of Alphabet in 2005.

Time (US)

Founders: Briton Hadden, Henry Luce
Founded Year: 1923

Why its hot: Time is an American weekly news magazine and news website. While it was originally founded in 1923 by Briton Hadden and Henry Luce from Yale University, the European edition was formerly called Time Atlantic. Time carries the credits of being the weekly news magazine with the world’s largest circulation.

Napster (UK)

Founders: Shawn Fanning
Funding: €13.6 million
Valuation: $60 million – $90 million
Founded Year: 1999

Why its hot: Napster is a pioneering peer-to-peer file sharing internet software emphasising on digital audio files, especially audio songs in MP3 format. After facing legal difficulties due to copyright infringement, the company ceased operation and was acquired by Roxio. In 2011, it became an online music store and was acquired by Rhapsody from Best Buy. Napster was founded by Shawn Fanning from Northeastern University.

Dell (US)

Founders: Michael Dell
Founded Year: 1984

Why its hot: Dell is a computer technology company involved in developing, selling, repairing, and supporting computers and related products and services. It is named after its founder, Michael Dell from the University of Texas. Dell is known for its innovations in supply chain management and electronic commerce. Until the acquisition of Perot Systms in 2009, Dell was a pure hardware vendor.

Tripod (US)

Founders: Bo Peabody, Brett Hershey
Founded Year: 1992

Why its hot: Tripod was founded Bo Peabody and Brett Hershey from Williams College. The company provides the tools to allow users to easily build fully functional websites with professional-looking templates and powerful plugins. Lycos Publish, its editor is robust, reliable and easy-to-use. Tripod offers attractively priced hosting packages and premium features helping users build a website that stands out from the rest.

Stay tuned to Silicon Canals for more updates in the tech startup world.

Also read,

https://siliconcanals.com/news/eit-digital-conference-companies/