Brian Acton and Jan Koum by Kalyani Mookherji

Brian Acton was born on February 24, 1972 in Michigan but as his family moved to Central Florida, he grew up in the balmy environs of the Sunshine state. His mother was an entrepreneur herself and used to run a successful freight-shipping firm which in turn gave young Acton valuable insight into running a business and meeting payroll.

Unlike Acton, Jan Koum saw tough days in early childhood. Koum was born in Kyiv, Ukraine February 24, 1976. He arrived in the US when his mother and grandmother immigrated to Mountain View, California in 1992. Initially the family had to take recourse to a social support program to get a small two-bedroom apartment.