Many billionaires faced difficulties in their childhood. Some did not even have access to electricity. However, with dedication and hard work, they overcame hardship and became a billionaire. One such person is Jay Chaudhry, an Indian-American billionaire, who founded Zscaler in 2008, a cybersecurity firm. He is the CEO of the company which went public in March 2018.
According to Forbes, Jay has a real-time net worth of USD 11.6 billion or Rs 96960 crore, as of July 16. He and his family own around 40 per cent of Zscaler, whose market cap is USD 30.91 billion. The 65-year-old was born in Panoh village in Una district of Himachal Pradesh.
The place only had electricity or running water once he was in the 8th and 10th standard, respectively. His parents were small-scale farmers, and he was the youngest of three sons. He holds a bachelor's degree in electronics engineering from IIT, BHU. Jay moved to the US in 1980 to study master's in engineering and marketing at the University of Cincinnati.
Jay Chaudhry and his wife Jyoti quit their jobs and used their life savings (around USD 500,000) to start cybersecurity firm SecureIT, his first startup in 1997. Before Zscaler, Chaudhry founded four other tech companies that were all acquired by other companies. They were SecureIT, CoreHarbor, CipherTrust and AirDefense.
By 2007, the duo were already successful entrepreneurs. Next year in 2008, he founded Zscaler, a cybersecurity firm. Jay now lives in Nevada, after relocating from the Bay Area.
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