After: Jeff Bezos By 1997, Bezos had made his first million, and two years later he had ascended to billionaire status, according to Forbes . He says a surprising statistic led him to start Amazon. "I came across the fact that web usage was growing at 2,300 percent per year," he said in a 2010 speech at Princeton . "I'd never seen or heard of anything that grew that fast, and the idea of building an online bookstore with millions of titles...was very exciting to me." Forbes estimates Bezos net worth is a staggering 161.9 billion. MARK RALSTON - Getty Images
Before: Bill Gates Few names are as ubiquitous with success in the tech industry as Bill Gates. The software mogul started at Harvard in 1973, but left during his junior year to found Microsoft with his high school friend, Paul Allen, in the spring of 1975. Doug Wilson - Getty Images
After: Bill Gates In 1985, Microsoft Windows 1.0 was released and the company's stock went public the following year. According to CNBC , almost three million shares were sold making Gates a millionaire overnight. Today, Forbes reports that Gates is worth 104 billion and is currently the second richest person in the world . Anadolu Agency - Getty Images
Before: Mark Zuckerberg To date, Mark Zuckerberg is regarded as one of the youngest self-made tech moguls in history. In 2004, while still a student at Harvard, Zuckerberg founded Facebook . Rick Friedman - Getty Images
After: Mark Zuckerberg Fast forward 15 years and Facebook has become one of the most influential social media sites in history. During an interview with Freakonomics Radio for their six-week series "The Secret Life of CEOs," Zuckerberg revealed that he hadn't intended to start a business when he launched the first iteration of the site: "Yeah, well, I never started this to build a company. I was just trying to help connect people at colleges and a few schools." Forbes places Zuckerberg's net worth at 73.6 billion. Marc Piasecki - Getty Images
Before: Elon Musk Long before serial entrepreneur Elon Musk become financially successful, he was coming up with creative ways to earn a buck. During his undergraduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania, he paid his rent by turning his house into a nightclub on the weekends, according to his roommate and longtime friend, Adeo Ressi. Paul Harris - Getty Images
After: Elon Musk Shortly after dropping out of grad school at Stanford, Musk and his brother Kimbal became millionaires after selling their first internet startup, Zip2. According to Money , he then invested 12 million into online banking company X.com, which was later renamed Paypal. In the years to follow, Musk went on to start SpaceX and Tesla Motors, both of which are pioneers in their respective fields. Business Insider estimates Musk's net worth is close to 20 billion. Justin Sullivan - Getty Images
Before: Virginia Rometty Virginia Rometty graduated from Northwestern in 1979, where she studied computer science and electrical engineering. After her graduation, she joined a work-study program run by the General Motors Institute. The India Today Group - Getty Images
After: Virginia Rometty In 1981, she joined the IBM team as a systems engineer and was later promoted to the strategic leader of IBM Global Services. Rometty has long been credited with initiating the transition of IBM from a tech company to a data company. In 2010, she became the first female CEO in the company's history and is continually recognized for her unparalleled commitment and leadership achievements. Chesnot - Getty Images
Before: Steve Jobs Before Steve Jobs become the co-founder and leading visionary of Apple, he scored a job with the video game company Atari a couple of years after dropping out of Reed College. In 1976, Jobs teamed up with Steve Wozniak and Ron Wayne to officially start Apple Computer, reported The Telegraph . Kim Kulish - Getty Images
After: Steve Jobs During 1977, the Apple II was released and became a huge success. Three years later, Apple went public and raised 110 million. Jobs became the official CEO of the company in 1997 and for the next 14 years, he was the driving force behind the brand's domination of the music and computer tech industries. Sadly, on October 5, 2011, Jobs lost his battle with a rare form of pancreatic cancer. Justin Sullivan - Getty Images
Before: Pierre Omidyar Pierre Omidyar started his career as a freelance web designer and developer relations engineer. According to The Economic Times , Omidyar was inspired to start the auction site eBay in 1995 to help his now-wife connect with other like-minded PEZ candy dispenser collectors. James D. Wilson - Getty Images
After: Pierre Omidyar Three years after Omidyar launched eBay, the company went public. Today, eBay is worth an estimated 34 billion, while Omidyar's net worth is 13.2 billion. Ramin Talaie - Getty Images
Before: Jack Dorsey Jack Dorsey had just been passed over for a job at Camper, a shoe store, when he had a serendipitous meeting with a startup executive at a San Francisco coffee shop (at least, according to an excerpt from Nick Bilton's book about Twitter ). Patrick McMullan - Getty Images
After: Jack Dorsey Soon after, Dorsey was hired by the executive and he became one of the co-founders of what would later become Twitter. In 2009, he went on to co-found the payment management company, Square. Now Dorsey's net worth is estimated to be 5.7 billion. Chesnot - Getty Images
Before: Larry Ellison Ellison was born in 1944 and grew up in a tough neighborhood on Chicago's south side. After dropping out of college twice, Ellison decided to become a programmer. "I never took a computer science class in my life," he said in an oral history interview for the Smithsonian Institution . "I got a job working as a programmer; I was largely self-taught. I just picked up a book and started programming." Jonathan Elderfield - Getty Images
After: Larry Ellison Ampex Corporation eventually hired Ellison to program a database for the CIA. Then in 1977, he parted ways with Ampex to start his own business. The database management company he started was later named Oracle and has grown into a multinational computer tech company of which Ellison is the CTO. Forbes estimates his net worth to be just over 70 billion. Gregg DeGuire - Getty Images
Before: Reed Hastings Engineer Reed Hasting's first major business venture was a software company. The company grew quickly and, after going public, was acquired by Rational Software in 1997 for 750 million, reported Inc . From there Hastings went on to start Netflix. Justin Sullivan - Getty Images
After: Reed Hastings Netflix's initial business model was designed to be a subscription-only DVD rental service, but it soon expanded to offer streaming services and original content. "Binge viewing is a very novel thing that we pioneered, and there's no movie equivalent," Hastings said at the Code Conference in Southern California . As of late January 2019, Netflix had roughly 139 million subscribers, reported CNN . Hastings net worth is estimated to be just under 4 billion. Carlos Alvarez - Getty Images
Before: Susan Wojcicki Since Susan Wojcicki was born and raised in Silicon Valley, it seems rather fitting that she was employee number 16 hired by Google back when it was just another internet startup in 1998. Larry Busacca - Getty Images
After: Susan Wojcicki As Google charged ahead to become the world's leading info-tech company, Wojcicki pushed for Alphabet Inc (Google's mother company) to acquire YouTube in 2006. Since this acquisition, Wojcicki has served as YouTube's CEO, where she's known as the innovative mind behind the brand's continued success. Her superstar leadership of one of the most beloved internet platforms has helped her rack up an estimated net worth of 490 million, according to Forbes . Phillip Faraone - Getty Images
Before: Evan Spiegel Evan Spiegel was studying product design at Stanford when he met Reggie Brown and Bobby Murphy. In 2012, the trio joined forces to develop Picaboo, which later became known as Snapchat. From day one, Spiegel operated as the company's CEO. J.Emilio Flores - Getty Images
After: Evan Spiegel In 2017, after rejecting a 3 billion dollar offer from Mark Zuckerberg to buy Snap Inc., the company went public. According to CNBC , the social network known for it's disappearing messages is currently worth an estimated 8 billion and the 29 year old's net worth is close to $3.8 billion . Michael Cohen - Getty Images
Before: Sundar Pichai After completing his undergraduate degree in his home country of India, Sundar Pichai attended grad school at Stanford for material sciences and engineering. In 2004, he joined Google as the vice president of product management. AFP - Getty Images
After: Sundar Pichai In 2008, Pichai's team successfully released the Google Chrome web browser. Pichai's proven leadership skills eventually led to his promotion to CEO in 2014. Although his exact net worth isn't known, The Guardian reported that his Alphabet (Google's mother company) holdings were valued at 650 million in 2016. JOSH EDELSON - Getty Images
Before: Michael Dell Michael Dell founded what would become one of the largest computer manufactures in the world from his dorm room. "[I] started the company with $1,000 a week before I was taking my final exams as a freshman," Dell said on the Fortt Knox podcast. In 1984, he convinced his parents it was time for him to leave the University of Texas to focus on his computer business. At the time, Dell had already reportedly grossed $200,000. Jonathan Elderfield - Getty Images
After: Michael Dell Now, 35 years later, Dell still serves as the CEO of Dell Technologies and the company is estimated to be worth 70 billion . Dell's personal net worth is said to be 32.7 billion, according to Forbes . Drew Angerer - Getty Images
Before: Jack Ma "Jack" Ma, born Ma Yun, grew up in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. Ma has been very open about his early struggles to make it to the top. In an interview filmed at the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in 2015, he admitted that he was rejected from Harvard 10 times. AFP - Getty Images
After: Jack Ma Ma's early setbacks proved to be a springboard for his ultimate success. In 1999, he co-founded the Alibaba Group, known for their various e-commerce, retail, and technology brands. Ma currently holds the title of the company's executive chair and China's richest man . Fortune reported his net worth to be 40 billion. Chesnot - Getty Images
Before: Alexis Ohanian After abandoning his studies to become an immigration lawyer in 2005, Ohanian decided that he wanted to build his own business. "I convinced my college roommate to start a business that would help people skip lines," he told The New York Times . "That didn't work out. But then Y Combinator [a Silicon Valley incubator] said, 'O.K., take our money and do something else.' And that was Reddit." Bennett Raglin - Getty Images
After: Alexis Ohanian Ohanian sold Reddit to Cond Nast in 2006, and while the exact price it sold for wasn't publicized, the figure was estimated by CNBC to be between 10 and 20 million. Ohanian is currently serving as Reddit's executive chair, and his net worth is around 9 million . In a 2017 CNBC report , Reddit was valued at 1.8 billion. NBC - Getty Images
Before: Travis Kalanick Travis Kalanick originally set out to study computer engineering at UCLA, but like so many entrepreneurs of his ilk, he eventually left school to focus on an early business venturea peer-to-peer file-sharing app called Scour. After hitting a few stumbling blocks along the way, Kalanick sold his second notable business endeavor, Red Swoosh, to Akamai for 23 million in 2007. Charles Eshelman - Getty Images
After: Travis Kalanick In 2008, while attending a technology conference, Kalanick met Garrett Camp and soon became the self-titled "chief incubator" for the revolutionary ridesharing app, Uber. Although Kalanick did not come up with the initial idea for the company, he is credited with designing the business model of hiring freelance drivers to avoid investing in vehicles and was later named CEO. Amid ongoing controversy, however, Kalanick left the company in 2017 and is now the CEO of food delivery startup CloudKitchens. His current net worth is estimated to be between 5 and 6 billion, according to Business Insider . David Crotty - Getty Images
Before: Ursula Burns Ursula Burns earned her master's in mechanical engineering from Columbia University. She then started her first summer internship at Xerox in 1980. Over the years she steadily climbed the career ladder within the company. Jemal Countess - Getty Images
After: Ursula Burns Burns was promoted to the CEO of Xerox in 2009 and became the first African American women in history to lead a fortune 500 company. "As I've progressed in my career, I've come to appreciateand really valuethe other attributes that define a company's success beyond the P&L: great leadership, long-term financial strength, ethical business practices, evolving business strategies, sound governance, powerful brands, values-based decision-making," Burns told Fortune . Since 2017, Burns has served as the CEO of the multinational telecommunication company Veon and while her exact net worth is not known, it's estimated to be about 28.7 million. John Medina - Getty Images
Before: Jeff Weiner After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, Jeff Weiner joined the Warner Brothers team. His success at the company was spearheaded by his drive to cultivate an online presence. Jemal Countess - Getty Images
After: Jeff Weiner Weiner eventually became a vice president at Warner Brothers, but parted ways with the company after they merged with AOL. In 2009, he became the CEO of LinkedIn. Recently, he joined forces with an educational technology company to start a nonprofit called The Compassion Project , which helps spread the importance of compassion in the workplace, specifically in leadership positions. His net worth is reportedly 800 million. Phillip Faraone - Getty Images
Before: Linus Torvalds Linus Torvalds was born and raised in Finland, and his interest in computer programing started at age 10. He went on to attended the University of Helsinki, where he graduated with a master's degree in computer science . Kim Kulish - Getty Images
After: Linus Torvalds In 1991, while still attending college, Torvalds invented a free operating system called Linux. According to Business Insider , Linux is responsible for powering the majority of computer servers globallyit's also the backbone of the entire Android operating system. Torvalds net worth is estimated to be around 150 million. AFP - Getty Images