Not all entrepreneurs are lucky enough to inherit assets of millions or even billions dollars from their parents or relatives. However, there are many successful billionaires in the world who have only come to wealth on their own. What are the inspriring stories of top 5 billionaires who started off with nothing?

Jan Koum (Whatsapp)

Wealth: $10.3 billion

Jan Koum is a Ukrainian programmer and co-founder of WhatsApp, where he also served as CEO. Jan was born in a small village near Kiev. He lived in poverty as a child and his family did not even have access to hot water. At the age of 16, Jan and his family moved to Mountain View, California. Luck came to Jan at the University of San Jose, where he met one of Yahoo’s first employees, Brian Acton. Jan Koum soon joined Yahoo and left the university. However, they both left Yahoo soon and Jan began working on his new idea, which gave birth to WhatsApp. This application was first launched in 2009 when it was available in the App Store for the iOS operating system. At that time, Jan’s life changed 180 degrees and he became one of the wealthiest and most successful entrepreneurs in the world.