Born in Wisconsin in the 20th of April 1966, David Filo ranks as the 240th richest person in the world. In 2006, he was estimated to have a net worth of $2.9 billion. A year earlier, in 2005, he reportedly donated a total of $30 million to Tulane University, his alma mater.
Moving to Moss Bluff, a suburb lake in Charles, Louisiana at the age of 6, David Filo finished his secondary education at Sam Houston High School. Afterwards, he earned a BS in Computer Engineering through a Dean’s Honor Scholarship at Tulane University in New Orleans. That degree was later on supplemented by an MS, which he obtained from the Stanford University.
In 1994, David Filo initiated the birth of Yahoo! together with his friend from Stanford, Jerry Yang. Of the two founders, David Filo serves as the key technologist, having his attention fixed on the more technological side of things. The more outgoing Jerry Yang, on the other hand, serves as the company’s cheerleader.
Starting off as a pair of Net-surfing doctoral students, David Filo and Jerry Yang launched their very own Website called “Jerry and David’s Guide to the World Wide Web”. The site was created to serve as an index for their favorite websites. By organizing web pages by subject, Filo and Yang’s simple software makes it easier for internet users to get to their favorite sites. It was initially used by the students of Stanford since it resided on the Stanford server.
Seeing it as a useful tool, the website became known to other people in the university. Within months, the site attracted thousands of other users. Since the site was often visited, David Filo and Jerry Yang decided to change the name into Yahoo!. The site became very popular so much so that another on-line company, AOL, offered to buy it. However, David Filo and his partner retained ownership of their brilliant creation and in 1995, they successfully established their very own company.