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11 billionaires who dropped out of college before making their fortunes

11 billionaires who dropped out of college before making their fortunes

Fashion designer Ralph Lauren dropped out of Baruch College at The City College of New York.

WhatsApp cofounder and former CEO Jan Koum dropped out of San Jose State University.

Koum worked at Yahoo for nine years before founding WhatsApp, Business Insider previously reported in May 2017.

The 43-year-old computer programmer has a net worth of $10 billion, Forbes estimates.

Mark Zuckerberg left Harvard after his sophomore year to focus on Facebook.

Zuckerberg founded the social network to help fellow students learn the names of the people in their classes, Business Insider previously reported. He dropped out shortly after.

The 35-year-old entrepreneur has a current net worth of $66 billion, Forbes estimates.

Las Vegas Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson dropped out of the City College of New York.

Adelson first became wealthy after founding a company called COMDEX that hosted technology-focused trade shows, Business Insider previously reported in May 2019. In 1995, Adelson and his partners sold it along with other smaller shows to SoftBank for $862 million.

The 86-year-old has a net worth of $33.1 billion, Forbes estimates.

CNN founder Ted Turner left Brown University before graduating ... but not by choice.

Turner was expelled from Brown for allowing his girlfriend to live with him in his dorm room, Business Insider previously reported. Despite the rather murky end to Turner's time as a student there, the university issued him honorary degrees years later.

The 80-year-old has a net worth of $2.2 billion, Forbes estimates.

Ty Warner, the creator of Beanie Babies, dropped out of Kalamazoo College in 1962 because he couldn't afford it, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Warner went on to sell encyclopedias, work as a valet, and sell stuffed animals for now-defunct toy company Dakin before founding Ty Inc. and creating the iconic Beanie Baby, according to HuffPost. Forbes reports that Warner also owns several hotels, including the Four Seasons in New York.

But Warner's career wasn't without controversy. He pled guilty to charges of tax evasion in 2017 for hiding income in a Swiss bank, according to HuffPost.

The 74-year-old now has a net worth of $2.6 billion, Forbes estimates.

Source: Chicago Tribune

DreamWorks Animation cofounder David Geffen once lied about having graduated from UCLA to keep a job in the mailroom of now-defunct talent agency William Morris.

Geffen later admitted publicly that he had actually dropped out of the University of Texas at Austin, according to Forbes. He worked as a talent agent at William Morris prior to founding DreamWorks.

The 76-year-old is now the richest man in Hollywood, and Forbes estimates that his net worth is about $8.4 billion.

Source: Business Insider

Michael Dell dropped out of the University of Texas at Austin to sell computers.

As a student, Dell spent his spare time upgrading PCs and selling them from his dorm room, Business Insider previously reported in November 2018. He made $180,000 in his first month of business the summer after his freshman year and never went back to school.

The 54-year-old has a current net worth of $30.6 billion, Forbes estimates.

Oracle founder Larry Ellison dropped out of two different universities.

Ellison enrolled in the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign after high school but dropped out during his sophomore year after his adoptive mother died, Business Insider previously reported. He later completed one semester at the University of Chicago.

The 75-year-old has a net worth of $63 billion, according to Forbes.

Bill Gates left Harvard after two years to found Microsoft.

In 2010, The Harvard Crimson called Gates "Harvard's most successful dropout." He left the Ivy League school during his sophomore year in 1975.

The 63-year-old is worth $102 billion, according to Forbes.

Uber cofounder and former CEO Travis Kalanick studied computer engineering at UCLA before dropping out to work on now-defunct search engine Scour.

After Scour filed for bankruptcy, Kalanick also founded a networking-software company called Red Swoosh. Kalanick sold Red Swoosh to Akamai for $23 million in 2007, Business Insider previously reported. He used some of that money to spend a year traveling the world before founding Uber.

The 43-year-old has a net worth of $3.7 billion, Forbes estimates.

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