Dustin Moskovitz is still the richest of the young internet founders on this list, at roughly $8 to $10 billion by our estimate in October 2026, with Evan Spiegel second at around $2 to $3 billion. We left out Mark Zuckerberg, who sits in a league of his own at about $220 billion (342 million Meta shares at the October 23, 2026 close of $642.62). The ten founders below built their first big hit while barely out of their teens or early twenties. Most of them are now in their late thirties or forties, so here is where each one stands today and what the stake is worth.
| Rank | Founder | Known for | Our 2026 estimate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dustin Moskovitz | Facebook, Asana | $8 to $10 billion |
| 2 | Evan Spiegel | Snapchat | $2 to $3 billion |
| 3 | Matt Mullenweg | WordPress, Automattic | High hundreds of millions (estimate) |
| 4 | Chad Hurley | YouTube | $350 to $500 million |
| 5 | Andrew Gower | RuneScape | Several hundred million (old figure: $680 million shared with his brother) |
| 6 | David Karp | Tumblr | $150 to $250 million |
| 7 | Andrew Mason | Groupon, Descript | $50 to $150 million |
| 8 | Blake Ross | Firefox | Tens of millions |
| 9 | Naveen Selvadurai | Foursquare | Tens of millions |
| 10 | Pete Cashmore | Mashable | Tens of millions |
1. Dustin Moskovitz: $8 to $10 billion
Moskovitz was one of the five Harvard roommates and friends who started Facebook in 2004, and he was its first chief technology officer. He left in 2008 to co-found Asana with Justin Rosenstein, a work-management tool that listed through a direct listing in September 2020 at a market value of about $5.5 billion. In June 2025 he stepped down as CEO and became board chair, still holding a stake of around 53% in the company.
Our number is a range because the wealth is spread over Meta shares, Asana stock (which closed at $12.02 on October 23, 2026) and a lot of money that already moved into Good Ventures, the foundation he started with his wife Cari Tuna in 2011. Asana alone is now a smaller slice than the Facebook money, which tells you how good a young engineer’s early equity can be.
2. Evan Spiegel: $2 to $3 billion
Spiegel pitched disappearing photo messages as a Stanford class project in 2011 and turned down a reported $3 billion offer from Facebook in 2013. He is still the CEO of Snap, which went public in 2017. The wealth has had a rough ride: he was reported at about $13.8 billion in 2021 and about $2.5 billion in August 2025.
We value him off his Snap holdings. With the shares at $6.34 on October 23, 2026, a bad stock is a bad paycheck, even for the man who invented the Story format everyone copied.
3. Matt Mullenweg: high hundreds of millions (our estimate)
Mullenweg was 19 when he and Mike Little forked a blogging tool into WordPress in 2003. He founded Automattic in 2005, took the CEO job back in 2014 and has since bought WooCommerce (2015), Tumblr (2019), Pocket Casts (2021) and Beeper (2024). Automattic was valued at $7.5 billion in 2021, when WordPress ran about 40% of all websites.
His stake in the company has never been published, so this is our estimate, built on that 2021 valuation and a founder stake that we assume is in the low double digits. Treat it as a ballpark, not a receipt.
4. Chad Hurley: $350 to $500 million
Hurley designed the first PayPal logo, co-founded YouTube in 2005 and sold it to Google for $1.65 billion in October 2006. His slice was reported at $345.6 million at the February 2007 Google share price. He stayed CEO until 2010 and later launched MixBit, a video editing app that has since closed.
These days Hurley is mostly an investor. He is a minority owner of the Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles FC, and he said in January 2021 that he had invested in Leeds United. Our range starts from the 2007 payout and adds a modest return on the money since.
5. Andrew Gower: several hundred million
Gower wrote RuneScape with his brother Paul, and the browser game went live on January 4, 2001 from the family home in Nottingham. Jagex has since passed through US investors, Chinese owners, Carlyle and, today, CVC Capital Partners, while the game has claimed over 200 million accounts.
Andrew left the company long ago and now runs Fen Research, which released the free-to-play MMORPG Brighter Shores in early access on November 6, 2024. The old figure floating around was $680 million shared between the two brothers. We keep that as a dated reference rather than a current valuation, and our “several hundred million” is deliberately loose.
6. David Karp: $150 to $250 million
Karp dropped out of the Bronx High School of Science in 2001 and started Tumblr in 2007 after a gap between consulting contracts. Yahoo bought the platform for $1.1 billion in cash in 2013 and he stayed on as CEO until the end of 2017.
The sale price was not his to keep, since investors shared it. Tumblr later landed inside Automattic, so the platform that made Karp rich is now run by someone else on this very list. Our range is a share of the 2013 deal after investors, with no later windfall.
7. Andrew Mason: $50 to $150 million
Mason turned a failed social-cause site called The Point into Groupon, which grew to a reported $800 million of revenue by late 2010 and turned down a $6 billion approach from Google. He was fired on February 28, 2013, in a farewell memo that began as a resignation to spend time with his family and then turned out to be a joke.
He is now the founder and CEO of Descript, the audio and video editing tool. Groupon stock closed at $16.12 on October 23, 2026, a long way down from the IPO, and our range reflects the shares he sold early plus whatever Descript is worth to him on paper.
8. Blake Ross: tens of millions
Ross co-created Firefox with Dave Hyatt, and the browser launched in November 2004 when he was 19. It hit 100 million downloads in under a year. He later sold his startup Parakey to Facebook, worked there as director of product and left in early 2013.
Since then he has been more writer than founder: he put out an essay in 2015 about discovering he has aphantasia, and wrote a spec screenplay for HBO’s Silicon Valley. The sum is a rough estimate based on the Parakey deal and Facebook equity, with no public number behind it.
9. Naveen Selvadurai: tens of millions
Born in Chennai, Selvadurai studied computer science at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and co-founded Foursquare with Dennis Crowley in 2009. In March 2012 he stepped back from day-to-day work and later joined the startup studio Expa as a partner.
Foursquare survives as a data company and app maker rather than a social network people brag on. We put him in the tens of millions based on his early founder stake and what we assume he has since cashed out.
10. Pete Cashmore: tens of millions
Cashmore started Mashable from his bedroom in Aberdeenshire in 2005 at age 19, and it became one of the biggest tech sites online. Time listed him among its 100 most influential people in 2012. Ziff Davis bought Mashable in 2017 for a reported $50 million, and he left at the end of 2018.
A $50 million sale split with investors and staff leaves a founder with a solid but not huge payout, so he lands at the bottom of our list.
Keep reading
- the most common routes to a self-made billion: several of these founders took exactly these paths
- how the AI gold rush is making people rich: the new wave of young founders is working on a different kind of product
- what happens when a company goes public: explains the listings behind Asana and Snap
FAQ
Who is the richest of the youngest digital multi-millionaires?
Dustin Moskovitz, co-founder of Facebook and Asana, at roughly $8 to $10 billion by our October 2026 estimate. Mark Zuckerberg is richer at about $220 billion but is excluded as a category of his own.
How much is Evan Spiegel worth in 2026?
We estimate $2 to $3 billion, tied to his Snap shares, which closed at $6.34 on October 23, 2026. He was reported at about $13.8 billion in 2021, so most of the swing is the stock price.
Who created WordPress and what is Matt Mullenweg worth?
Matt Mullenweg co-created WordPress with Mike Little in 2003 and runs Automattic, valued at $7.5 billion in 2021. We estimate his own stake at the high hundreds of millions, but he has not published the figure.
What happened to the founders of Tumblr, Groupon and Mashable?
David Karp left Tumblr at the end of 2017, Andrew Mason was fired from Groupon in 2013 and now runs Descript, and Pete Cashmore left Mashable after its 2017 sale to Ziff Davis.
How are these net worth figures estimated?
We combine disclosed deals, share counts, current stock prices where the company is public, and earlier reported payouts, then give a range. Where no stake is public we label the number as our estimate.
How we estimate net worth
Our estimates are based on public reporting, company valuations, and deal and earnings figures all compiled in an internal valuation model. They are approximate, and figures change over time as new information emerges.
For this list we used sale prices (YouTube, Tumblr, Mashable), company valuations (Automattic, Asana), current share prices for Snap, Asana, Groupon and Meta, and earlier reported founder payouts. Anything we could not tie to a deal is shown as a range.
Last updated: October 2026.
