Austin Russell: Drop out of school, watch youtube to become the youngest billionaire on the planet

Russell was born on "Pi Day" on March 14, 1995 in California (USA). From a young age, he showed prodigy qualities.

He memorized the periodic table of elements by the age of two. When he was in 6th grade, he turned his own Nintendo DS game console into a mobile phone because his parents did not allow him to buy a phone. At the age of 13, he patented his first invention - a groundwater recycling system.

With outstanding talent, Russell dropped out of high school and went straight to the University of California. In 2012, he majored in Physics at Stanford University.

When he was just "wet feet" to Stanford University, Russell received an investment of $ 100,000 from billionaire Peter Thiel. He dropped out of school and founded Luminar Technologies - a Silicon Valley-based company that makes sensors for self-driving cars - at the age of 16. Thiel is also an advisor to this company.

Billion dollar enterprise

The race to self-driving car technology has attracted billions of dollars in investment, but this business segment has not created many billionaires. Therefore, giants like Luminar CEO Austin Russell are attracting the attention of experts as one of the rare billionaires related to this industry.

With the Luminar laser sensor company founded by Russell himself at the age of 17, the entrepreneur has become the world's youngest self-made billionaire.

"Startups are intense and exhausting, they happen every day and with everything we have to do until the company is big. Of course, the chance to get out of those ups and downs is a one-off. great rewards when the company goes public for the first time and grows.

Although I am quite young, I myself have poured countless blood, sweat and tears for this company. So I'm quite fortunate to keep a large amount of stock in the business," said the 25-year-old founder of Russell.

Currently, Russell holds about 104.7 million shares, equivalent to a third of Luminar's shares with a total value of $ 2.4 billion. Luminar's merger with Gore Metropoulos and listing on Nasdaq in August 2020 has increased its estimated total market value to $3.4 billion.

In addition, a series of famous names on the board of directors also help Luminar attract investors, such as billionaire Peter Thiel (total assets of $4.6 billion), billionaire Alec Gores (2, 2 billion USD)...

Paypal co-founder, billionaire Thiel has been one of Russell's mentors since he left Stanford University to build Luminar in 2012. As an advisor, billionaire Thiel was really impressed by the new technologies that Russell is aiming for and the abilities this young founder demonstrates to take Luminar from a small garage startup to a large Nasdaq corporation.

"You can build a billion-dollar empire, but that doesn't mean you will become a billionaire. From a financial perspective, it is extremely important that you keep a substantial stake in the billion-dollar empire. there," billionaire Thiel emphasized.

Luminar Technologies was founded in 2012, when Russell was 16 years old, and was studying at the Beckman Laser Institute at the University of California, Irvine. To date, the company has raised $36 million and employs more than 250 employees. They have spent the past 5 years engineering and manufacturing all the key components of their LiDAR system from the chip level up.

Despite operating in the auto-car segment, Luminar is wise not to go head-to-head with giants like Alphabet (Google) or GM. Instead, Luminar aims to perfect the sensors of self-driving cars. Specifically, Luminar's device will help these autonomous cars recognize surrounding objects by shining lasers at them, thereby offering ways to avoid the road.

Russell's business is a pioneer, so it has a huge advantage, even with the big players in the auto industry. Currently, Russell is selling his sensor products to major automobile corporations such as Volvo Car, Daimler or even Intel's Mobileye project.

With the trend of self-driving cars being focused on developing by car manufacturers recently, Russell's business will certainly continue to grow. Currently, Luminar's sales have reached 15 million USD in 2020 but it is estimated that this number could reach 1.3 billion USD by 2026.

Drop out of school, watch Youtube to start a business

According to Alec Gores, who helped Russell with the listing, the founder was knowledgeable about everything and was extremely proactive in negotiations. Russell's talent lies not only in engineering but also in many other related fields. He even took the time to learn more about merger regulations, shares, securities... to facilitate negotiations to improve the company's value.

As early as 2 years old, Russell surprised when he memorized the periodic table of elements. This founder also turned his game console into a mobile phone because his parents refused to buy it for him when he was a kid.

At the age of 13, Russell patented his first patent for a system that recycles groundwater, collects water from garden sprinklers, reduces wastewater, and creates a recirculating irrigation system.

With his talent, Russell jumped high school to attend the University of California. He then switched to physics at Stanford, but dropped out in his first year after winning a $100,000 reward from billionaire Thiel for his laser induction initiative. Then not long after getting his driver's license, Russell founded Luminar with that initiative and money.

In fact, the idea of using lasers for touch has been noticed by Russell since he was a teenager, but Luminar's approach is completely different from previous technologies, making their products affordable, effective, and cheap. and easier to use than contemporaries.

Russell's start-up journey makes many people admire because unlike the billionaires in the Forbes ranking who inherited their fortune, this founder is one of the rare people to get rich before the age of 30.

In addition, the fact that Russell does not have an advanced degree or is famous on social networks also attracts the admiration of the startup community. Unlike many young people in their 20s, Russell doesn't have Twitter or Instagram. Most of Russell's knowledge is not through any school or training course, but mainly thanks to Wikipedia and Youtube.

"You don't have to wait until puberty and then wait until you're 25 years old to accumulate capital to start a business. We can absolutely start a business early to go down a road that no one has done before," said 25-year-old billionaire Russell.

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