Tegan Acton
This lovely gal is Mrs. Tegan Acton; wife of Signal’s co-founder Brian Acton, the computer programmer and internet entrepreneur who after selling Whastapp to Facebook in 2014, founder Signal along with Moxie Marlinspike, whose real name is Matthew Rosenfeld.
Certainly, you are here to know everything there is about Brian Acton’s Wife Tegan, however, we think Brian has one interesting resume, therefore let’s have a look at it.
Brian Acton Family
Born to working middle-class parents Brian Lange Acton was born on February 17, 1972, in Michigan. His 71-year-old mother Norma Olivia Acton (nee. Claxton) owned a freight shipping firm it was she who encouraged him to become involved in the business.
“My mom started an air-freight company; my grandmother built a golf course,” he said. “I have a certain degree of entrepreneurial risk-taking in my family history. Maybe that eventually rubbed off on me a little bit.”
Norma Acton who lives in Florida is not proud because her son is a billionaire, but proud that in spite of all the money in his bank account he still is the same humble kid that helped his math team at Lake Howell High.
“He wants to inspire other kids out there at Lake Howell — and anywhere, really — to see what can happen if you keep working hard and don’t let rejection discourage you,” she said.
Brian Acton Education
Brian attended Lake Howell High before earning dual-enrollment credits at the University of Central Florida and a full scholarship to study engineering at the University of Pennsylvania.
Acton briefly studied engineering at the University of Central Florida in 1988, and economics and computer science at the University of Pennsylvania for one year before he decided to transfer to Stanford University, from where he graduated with a B.S. in computer science in 1994.
Brian Acton and Jan Koum
Some people believed Brian Acton and Jan Koum met while they worked at Yahoo!, but they actually met way before Yahoo!, they were security testers at Ernst & Young, sometime around 1997, their desks were across from each other, both immediately found they had lots in common.
“You could tell he was a bit different,” recalls Acton. “He was very no-nonsense, like ‘What are your policies here; What are you doing here?’”
“Neither of us has an ability to nothing,”
When Koum’s momma died of cancer in 2000, Brian was there to help him out, either inviting him to his house or playing ultimate frisbee and soccer.
“He would invite me to his house,”
When Koum was starting WhatsApp with Alex Fishman and the App seemed like it wasn’t going to work the way he thought it would, it was Brian who told him to keep working.
“You’d be an idiot to quit now,” he said. “Give it a few more months.” Brian told him.
Koum returned the love when he invited Acton to take part in Whatsapp.
Brian Acton Yahoo!
Brian Acton met Jan Koum way before they worked at Yahoo!, they actually met while they were security testers at Ernst & Young, sometime around 1996.
In 1996, Brian Acton became Yahoo!’s employee 44, he spent nine years in the company. During those years he was Software Engineer Yahoo Advertising and Data Processing, later senior software engineer of Yahoo Operations, Director of Engineering – Yahoo Shopping, Yahoo Travel, Senior Director of Engineering at Yahoo Marketplace, an engineer for Yahoo Shopping, and ultimately Director of engineering at Yahoo Shopping
They both left in September 2007. Upon their departure from Yahoo, Brian and Jan took a year off, flew to South America, and spent his time playing ultimate frisbee.
Brian Acton Facebook
Brian Acton and Koum, first approach Facebook after they left Yahoo!, at the time neither of them got the job. Brian recalled.
“We’re part of the Facebook reject club,”
Little they knew that the next time their paths crossed with Facebook, it was up to them if they work together
Brian Acton Whatsapp
The name behind WhatsApp as you all know was Jan Koum’s idea, who said it sounded like What’s Up; it all started after Jan bought an iPhone and realized the potential in the Appstore talked to his friend Alex Fishman about creating a revolutionary app that would change the world forever.
“Jan was showing me his address book,” recalls Fishman. “His thinking was it would be really cool to have statuses next to individual names of the people.”
WhatsApp was born on the same day Jan celebrated his 33rd birthday, February 24, 2009. It had its ups and downs, but little by little, and with the help from Apple after they launched push notifications they solved them all.
Jan showed the new app to Brian while they sat at his kitchen table, exchanged messages, Brian soon became fascinated with WhatsApp.
“You had the whole open-ended bounty of the Internet to work with,” he says.
They worked at the Red Rock Cafe, Brian was able to get five former Yahoo colleagues onboard, (when we say onboard we really meant that they invested $250,000) and this helped Brian in becoming WhatsApp’s stoke holder and co-founder. The date was November 1st, 2009.
Brian Acton Conflict
What kind of conflict did Brian Acton and Facebook have that he didn’t care about leaving $850 million on the table when he left?
I sold my users’ privacy to a larger benefit. I made a choice and a compromise. And I live with that every day.”
Brian Acton didn’t agree with Facebook’s idea of monetizing WhatsApp, Facebook’s COO Cheryl Sandberg made it clear their values were at odds, Brian was on board the metered model where after a free limit, users would be charged based on the volume of messages, but Sandberg said it wouldn’t scale.
Brian sensed her real intentions and responded.
“I called her out one time,” Acton also told Forbes. “I was like, ‘No, you don’t mean that it won’t scale. You mean it won’t make as much money as…,’ and she kind of hemmed and hawed a little. And we moved on. I think I made my point… They are businesspeople, they are good businesspeople. They just represent a set of business practices, principles and ethics, and policies that I don’t necessarily agree with.”
Acton later said Facebook execs used him to “mislead European regulators regarding Facebook’s intention to merge Facebook and WhatsApp user data”
Brian Acton Twitter
Brian Acton’s famous #deletefacebook tweet came on March 20, 2018, it went viral in a second!
It is time. #deletefacebook
— Brian Acton (@brianacton) March 20, 2018
That same year, Brian gave an exclusive interview to Forbes about the reason behind his #deletefacebook tweet, which was also the last tweet since then.
About Mark Zuckerberg and Sandberg’s idea to monetize his former app, he said
“It was like, okay, well, you want to do these things I don’t want to do,” Acton says. “It’s better if I get out of your way. And I did.”
“Facebook “isn’t the bad guy.” (“I think of them as just very good businesspeople.”) But he paid dearly for the right to speak his mind. “As part of a proposed settlement at the end, [Facebook management] tried to put a nondisclosure agreement in place,” Acton says. “That was part of the reason that I got sort of cold feet in terms of trying to settle with these guys.”
Brian Acton Trak N Tell
After Facebook and WhatsApp, Brian invested in Trak N Tell. Along with Brian were two unidentified investors. Briand and his two investors allegedly invested approximately $3.5 million.
“We are very pleased to have Brian on board, and he’s been of tremendous help in terms of strategizing, and planning for the company’s next stage of growth,” Pranshu Gupta, chief executive of Trak N Tell, told ET.
Brian Acton Signal
Mr. Acton became Signal’s executive chairman and president in February 2018; he invested $50 million in the encrypted messaging app which mission is “to develop open-source privacy technology that protects free expression and enables secure global communication.”
Signal founded also by Moxie Marlinspike founded Open System in 2010, that same year he Marlinspike created RedPhone and TextSecure, acquired by Twitter in 2011. In 2013, after Marlinspike left Twitter he launched Open Whisper Systems.
He along with Trevor Perring developed the Signal Protocol, later unified with RedPhone and TextSecure.
Moxie Marlinspike and Brian Acton introduced the Signal Foundation on February 21, 2018. On October 20, 2020, they announced former Google’s employee and research scientist Meredith Whittaker joined Signal’s board of directors.
We are very excited to welcome Meredith Whittaker (@mer__edith) as the newest board member to the Signal Foundation. Read more on the newly updated foundation site! Signal tweeted.
Initially, Signal was sponsored by the Freedom of the Press Foundation; note that Brian’s $50 million input is a secured 0% interest loan, which increased to $105,0000 later on, and which he is expected to get back on February 28, 2026.
Signal and Elon Musk
On January 7th, Elon Musk sent Signal to the air with this simple tweet.
Use Signal
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 7, 2021
This came after Facebook’s new privacy policy updates. Signal quickly started to help new users with their verification codes.
Verification codes are currently delayed across several providers because so many new people are trying to join Signal right now (we can barely register our excitement). We are working with carriers to resolve this as quickly as possible. Hang in there. They tweeted on January 7th.
Even though we’re still breaking records, verification codes are back in the groove. Delivery delays have been eliminated across multiple cellular providers, so things should be more ASAP when you join the app.
But Marlinspike and Acton’s Signal was not the only ones beneficiated by Elon Musk’s tweet, the Texas-based biotechnology company called Signal Advance, found a 5,675% surge in its stocks.
According to the New York Post, Signal Advance’s 60 cent stokes went up to $3.76 a day after Musk’s tweet; then to $7.19 on Friday and to $38.70 on Monday.
The Signal Foundation cleared it up on Twitter on January 8th
Is this what stock analysts mean when they say that the market is giving mixed Signals? It’s understandable that people want to invest in Signal’s record growth, but this isn’t us. We’re an independent 501c3 and our only investment is in your privacy.
Update: Although the growth rates may look similar, this stock symbol still has absolutely nothing to do with us. We’re an independent 501c3 nonprofit, but you can donate here to invest in your privacy:
Forbes 400 Brian Acton
Brian Acton has been in Forbes several times; probably one of the first time Forbes 400 included him in the annual list of the 400 wealthiest American was back in September 2014, when Acton and Koum sold WhatsApp to Facebook.
At that time, Forbes 400 reported Brian Action had a net worth estimated at $3.4 billion.
Forbes’articles that followed featuring Brian Acton had nothing to with the Forbes 400 annual list, but about his dispute with Facebook and decision to leave, by doing so, Acton also left $850 million in unvested options.
Brian Acton Net Worth
In Forbes 400’s 39th annual ranking of America’s richest people, they placed Brian Acton’s net worth of $2.5 billion in 339th place. He placed 39th in their Richest in Tech in 2017, and #836 in their Billionaires of 2020 editorial. After leaving Facebook and WhatsApp behind him, Mr. Acton invested $50 million in the Signal Foundation; invested in dotcom boom, but lost millions during the 2000’s dot-com bubble; he also invested in his philanthropic entities and give around $1 billion to other charities every year.
WhatsApp Co-Founder Brian Acton is Leaving Company to start his own Foundation.
After Brian Actor completely disconnected from WhatsApp and Facebook in 2016, the mere reason was that he left over a dispute with Zuckenberg, and another reason was to join forces with his wife Tegan and started the Acton Family Giving.
Brian Acton Family Foundation.
The Acton Family Giving foundation is according to its website one of three sister foundations in the Wildcard Giving Family, the others are Solidarity Giving and Sunlight Giving; all are run by Brian Acton and his wife Tegan Acton.
The mission of the Acton Family Foundation is “to support targeted initiatives and organizations the Actons have a personal connection to. This is not discretionary giving, but a home for work, ideas, and efforts that further our commitment to the community.”
Brian Acton Buys New Palo Alto House
Back in September 2020, Brian Acton bought a 7,900 square feet house at 1500 Cowper St. in the Old Palo Alto for $20 million.
But this is not the first house Brian acton bought in the Palo Alto area, as a matter of fact, is probably the eighth property; in 2019 it was reported he spent roughly $86 million in seven houses located in the Professorville block, he started purchasing the first home for $30 million in 2017.
Where Does Brian Acton Live?
Sometimes people get confused about where Brian Acton lives and believe he is living in Indianapolis, but the Brian Acton from Indianapolis is not our guy, but President and CEO of BMWC Constructors.
Singal’s co-founder Brian Acton lives in Palo Alto with his wife Tegan Acton. They previously lived in Mountain View and San Francisco, California.
Brian Acton Wives
Some people believe Brian Acton has been married three times and has several children, from those marriages and even some out of wedlock, but the truth is that he married twice and has one son from his first marriage.
Brian Acton Nancy Acton
Brian Acton’s first wife is Nancy Acton (born Nancy Chiou July 2, 1972), online records showed Nancy attended Winston Churchill Senior High School and Standford University.
We found that she worked as a Senior Software Validation Engineer for OnCue by Verizon, was a Software Validation and Test Engineer for Intel, Senior Software QA Engineer/Project Lead for Avtrex, was a Technical Writer and Software Q&A Engineer for Pixel Translations.
Nancy and Brian Acton had a son together, she filed for divorce in Santa Clara on June 13, 2007
Brian Acton Marina Acton
Here is another mistake, Marina Acton, the Ukrainian singer, and actress, who in November 2017, bout Kanye and Kim Kardashian’s Bel-Air mansion for $17.8 million is not Brian Acton’s wife or ex-wife.
Marina Acton and her husband, whose name we don’t know subsequently tried to sell the house for $18 million, but they couldn’t sell it at that price and eventually sold it for $14 million in 2018 to an Iranian couple named Shahram and Niloo Shoushani.
Marina Acton said she can prove Brian is not her husband.
Brian Acton, co-founder WhatsApp, is not my husband … I have strong evidence to prove it, if you like, ”said Marina.
Her parents Nikolai Nikolaevich and Alla Nikolaevna as well as close friends continue to say they were married.
Acton is Marina’s second husband in the United States. With the first, her relationship did not work out. “We haven’t seen him. And we didn’t even communicate, because we don’t know English, and he doesn’t know Russian, ”my mother said about him. “We applied for a visa twice, but we were refused. They couldn’t even fly to the wedding. We know that there is a man. Let’s wave our hands to each other along Viber and that’s it, ”says the father. Alla Nikolaevna believes that Marina loves her native land, but does not plan to return: “The daughter says that she loves Ukraine very much and wants it to prosper, but, you see, her fate has already taken shape there”.
Yes, indeed, this is her husband, everything is fine with them. On Marina’s birthday, I fly to them in this new house, ”one of Marina’s friends told TSN.
Her parents also spoke about their daughter’s education and career.
“She graduated from the University of Irpen with honors, where she also performed in the“ Constellation ”ensemble. After graduating from economics at the same university, she graduated by correspondence jurisprudence. From the 5th grade she studied English, the teachers always praised her for her success in the language and correct pronunciation, ”added Nikolai Nikolaevich.
Furthermore, my daughter had a position in the Prosecutor General’s Office, which she got as a result of winning the competition, as well as work as an assistant to a deputy. “And then she said that all her life she wanted to go to America, and went there. She graduated from the University of Washington, jurisprudence, studied a lot, ”said Marina’s mother.
Nikolai claims that Marina earned money for her life herself – they could not provide it to her. Alla says that her daughter saved up funds in Ukraine, but she studied and worked in the USA at the same time. “After completing her studies as a broker, besides the university, she worked as a patent lawyer – there was already a lot of money, she began to fly around the world with patenting,” Nikolai Nikolayevich explained.
Marina Acton had a brief career as a singer before producing films like Cicada 3301 and Seberg in 2019, starring Kristen Stewart.
Brian Acton Wife Tegan Acton
Brian Acton’s current wife Tegan Acton was born Tegan Bradford on October 9, 1975. She attended San Luis Obispo High School and graduated in 1997, with a B.A. in English and Political Science, from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Her first job was as Customer Care Supervisor for Yahoo! in 1997, where she met her husband Brian Acton, however, they get close, and Brian was already married to somebody else.
Tegan left Yahoo! in May 2001, when she joined the Sundance Institute in Park City, Utah as a Senior Project Manager, while working at a Sundance Film Festival she met again with Brian; according to them, they joined about the characters of the Harry Potter films.
“We laughed about “which Harry Potter character are you?” the quiz they had taken — she got Hermione, he got Ron”
They continued talking, started dating, married and the rest is history, in 2009 they moved to the Bay Area, where Tegan became the director of communications and strategic initiatives at Stanford University.
She left Stanford in 2014, when she became principal at the Acton Family Giving, around the same time Brian and Jan Koum sold WhatsApp to Facebook.
In addition to all of that, Tegan is principal at Good Gravy Films, Solidarity Giving, and president and co-chair of Sunlight Giving.
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