Software is the world’s Number One Industry in the
past 40 years. I discover this BY
ACCIDENT in the course of researching and writing this eBook. The claim that Software is Number One
Industry is not an exaggeration. It is
based on 4 facts. The software self-made
billionaires are (1) the richest (2) the fastest (3) the youngest and (4) the most
numerous.
First, the
software self-made billionaires are the richest. Bill Gates had been the world’s richest man
for 17 of the last 20 years. And this is
after giving away more than $30B to charity.
And Bill Gates has plenty of company.
In 2015, of the 10 richest self-made billionaires in the world, 5 of
them made it in software. They are Larry
Ellison of Oracle, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Michael Bloomberg of Bloomberg and
Zuckerberg of Facebook. The wealth gap
between software and the other sector is even more shocking than that. The other 5 sector (Telecom, Fast Fashion,
Investment, Conglomerate and Casino) only account for 1 billionaire each. Software easily beats the next best sector by
5 to 1 margin.
Second,
the software self-made billionaires also made their fortunes the fastest. Bill Gates became the richest man in the
world in his early 30s. In the 19the
century, John Rockefeller made it through petroleum or what he called black
gold. While it took Rockefeller more
than 25 years to become the richest man on earth, Bill Gates achieved this in
about 13 years, or half the time. It is still a world-record. Software is the speediest industry. It took Facebook and Google about 10 years to
reach users.
Third, the software self-made billionaires are also
the youngest. In the sample 37 of the
world’s software self-made billionaire, the average age is 49.5. That is more than 15 years younger than the
average age of self-made billionaires (about 67). The youngest self-made billionaire in the world
is Evan Spiegel at 25. Mark Zuckerberg
is only 31. Even Jeff Bezos, at 51, is still a very young age for self-made
billionaires, 6 of the self-made
billionaire are under 40s: they are Evan Spiegel, Garrett Camp, Sean Parker, Teddy
Sagi, Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin.
Fourth, the software self-made billionaires are the
most numerous. I could have easily
picked 100 plus software self-made billionaires from the Forbes list. That is about 10% of the world total
self-made billionaires (1,101). No other
sector comes even close.
This is my 6th eBook on self-made billionaires. I had been a programmer for 18 years and even
once started my own software company. I
even worked for three internet start-ups.
Writing this book gives me fresh perspective to examine this industry as
an objective outsider.
I adopt a six
W approach. Who are they? What are their educational backgrounds? What kind of software did they create? Did they collaborate? (Collaborate means multiple founders instead of
solo founders), which countries are they from?
Are there any women? How old are
they? How did they build their empire?
A couple of surprises came out in the course of
writing this book. First, China is
already a powerhouse in software, second only to the US, supplying 8 of the 37
software self-made billionaire. Second,
software is a collaborative industry, over 80% of the software companies are
founded by multiple-founders. A few
companies such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Oracle, SAP and Bloomberg are founded by
four or more founders. Third, software industry is famous for change and
innovation. Today, both change and
innovation are accelerating. Accelerated change will continue to favor
software. No other industries can match Software in (1)
low startup cost (2) short product cycle (3) scalability and (4) ability to
make other industries more efficient.
Looking ahead for the next 40 years,
Software will continue to be the Number One for the next 40 years.
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