Adam D’Angelo is a great example of a successful millennial entrepreneur. Adam is well known as the founder of the website, Quora. While growing up, Adam always had a passion for technology. During his high school years, Adam attended the prestigious Phillips Exeter Academy, an independent secondary school known for its innovation and interactive conference style of learning. At the academy, Adam became friends with Mark Zuckerberg. Even in high school, Adam and Zuckerberg demonstrated a knack for innovation as they collaborated to develop music suggestion software known as “Synapse Media Player”, a successful program that would later be acquired by Microsoft. This youthful collaboration would not be the last time that these two creative minds worked together. After high school, Adam went on to study computer science at the California Institute of Technology. Upon graduation, Adam reunited with Zuckerberg and became an integral member of the original Facebook team. At Facebook, Adam served as the Chief Technology Officer and the Vice President of engineering. In 2008, Adam left Facebook to pursue other endeavors. In 2009, Adam and Charlie Cheever, another former Facebook employee, founded the website Quora. Quora is a platform that allows a community of users to ask and answer questions. Today, Quora continues to thrive and Adam still serves as the CEO of the company. Adam has enjoyed financial success from his endeavors as his net worth has surpassed $600 million and he is recognized as one of the wealthiest millennial entrepreneurs in the industry. Adam credits his success to the execution of good ideas and encourages others to do the same.
As an occasional user of Quora to double check answers to questions quickly, it is wonderful to know the backstory to its creation. It is also incredible that D’Angelo interacted with Zuckerberg during their high school years to go on to work some projects together. I believe it shows how great minds together can develop impactful ideas through collaboration and pivoting.
It’s pretty incredible that Adam left Facebook… I guess he saw an incredible opportunity to start Quora and felt leaving this billion dollar industry was a good idea. It’s awesome that he had the opportunity to work at Facebook and then start his own company and still do well.
That’s crazy how many innovative people were a part of the original Facebook team. I think its even more crazy how Adam left this billion dollar idea in the first place to pursue another idea.