The Ukrainian immigrant on foodstamps and the Facebook reject

But the duo's road to becoming billionaires several times over has been filled with humble beginnings and setbacksKoum, 37, who co-founded the app with Brian Acton in 2009 co-founded WhatsApp in 2009, and five years later, is now estimated to now be worth about $6.8 billion. But at one point he was a teenage immigrant who lived on food stamps.The 'long time'-friend of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was just 16 when he moved to the U.S. from Ukraine.He was raised in a rural community, in a house with no hot water or electricity, and when the family moved overseas, his mother packed their suitcases with school supplies to save money.As a young immigrant, Koum and his mother had to rely on food stamps, and in a poignant tribute to his humble past, he chose to sign the deal with Facebook at the same welfare office in Mountain View where he used to queue to get food stamps.The offices for WhatsApp, an instant messaging service with 450million active users which Koum created with Brian Acton in 2009, are located only a few blocks from the welfare office.On Wednesday, Acton and Koum stood outside the welfare building as they signed the deal with Facebook, only this time Koum was able to drive there in his Porsche.His humble beginnings appear to have instilled in him a strong work ethic and dislike for egotism - WhatsApp may be a global phenomenon but it has no sign at its office.  Six of the best: Major household names are among Britain's small, medium yet most vibrant businesses.'I can’t see a reason for there being a sign. It’s an ego boost,' he told Forbes. 'We all know where we work.'Koum and Acton developed WhatsApp in coffee shops and at their homes. It took just a few years for the app to be worth billions of dollars. Facebook has paid $12 billion in stock and $4 billion in cash for WhatsApp, and the founders and employees will be granted $3 billion in restricted stock that will vest over four years after the $19 billion deal closes.CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the acquisition on his Facebook page, acknowledging his long-standing friendship with Koum in particular.'I've known Jan for a long time, and I know that we both share the vision of making the world more open and connected.'I'm particularly happy that Jan has agreed to join the Facebook board and partner with me to shape Facebook's future as well as WhatsApp's.'Less is known about Acton's background, although his CV ticks a lot of boxes for a typical employee in the tech industry - Stanford University, Apple and Yahoo!But surprisingly Acton was actually turned down for a job with Facebook, the very company that has signed the deal with Whatsapp, in 2009. In a tweet on his Twitter account at the time, he had posted: 'Facebook turned me down. It was a great opportunity to connect with some fantastic people. Looking forward to life's next adventure.'Twitter also appears to have turned Acton down for a job in the same year.Koum has promised that despite the billion-dollar deal, the app will continue to function in the same way.In an official statement posted on his own blog, Koum says: 'Almost five years ago we started WhatsApp with a simple mission: building a cool product used globally by everybody. 'Nothing else mattered to us.'Today we are announcing a partnership with Facebook that will allow us to continue on that simple mission. 'Doing this will give WhatsApp the flexibility to grow and expand, while giving me, Brian, and the rest of our team more time to focus on building a communications service that’s as fast, affordable and personal as possible.'Here’s what will change for you, our users: nothing.' Facebook's acquisition of WhatsApp is likely to be the highest price ever paid for a tech startup, knocking Microsoft's $8.5billion purchase of Skype in 2011, out of the park.‘The size of this deal is really massive and it will get people talking about a bubble,’ Greg Sterling at Opus Research told AFP.Facebook has said that it will keep WhatsApp as a separate service, just as it did with Instagram, which it bought for $1bn.WhatsApp has more than 450 million monthly active users. In comparison, Twitter had 241 million users at the end of 2013.Mark Zuckerberg says WhatsApp is on path to reach a billion users.'The combination of WhatsApp and Facebook will allow us to connect many more people round the world,' Zuckerberg said.'It's the only app we've ever seen that has grown more quickly than Facebook itself.''This is an incredible moment for me,' Koum said.'Every day over 19 billion messages are sent, with over 1 million new users every day. We wanted it to be simple, and a better service than SMS.'Facebook promised to keep the WhatsApp brand and service, and pledged a $1 billion cash break-up fee were the deal to fall through.Zuckerberg said he was not planning to put ads on WhatsApp and Koum also pledged not to add adverts to the service, which makes money from a subscription model.'We think advertising is not the way to go - we create a direct relationship with customers,' Koum said.Zuckerberg said WhatsApp would operate in the same way as Instagram, as a separate firm.'It would be pretty stupid of us to interfere. Our strategy is to grow and connect people. Once we get to 2-3 billion people there are ways we can monetise.'Now we want to focus on growing users. I don't think ads are the right way here.'(dailymail.co.uk)ANN.Az