How did Austin Russell make his first million?
Austin Russell made his first million when his company Luminar Technologies went public. He founded the company when he was just 17 years old, after dropping out of Stanford University. His company specializes in developing LIDAR technology for autonomous vehicles.
Austin got his fame when his company became a key player in the autonomous vehicle industry by providing LIDAR sensors that help self-driving cars detect their surroundings with high accuracy.
Early Age And Passion For Science
Austin showed passion for science and technology from an early age. At just 13 years old, he invented a groundwater recycling system that could capture and reuse water.
Winning Thiel Followship
Russell left Stanford after only one year. He won the $100,000 Thiel Fellowship, a program created by billionaire Peter Thiel to support young entrepreneurs who want to drop out of college and start businesses.
Russell taught himself much of what he knows about optics and engineering by reading textbooks and experimenting on his own. He is a self taught genius in the technology field.
Lifestyle
Despite being a young billionaire, Russell is known for maintaining a low-profile lifestyle. He doesn’t actively seek the spotlight and focuses on his work at Luminar rather than indulging in the lifestyles of billionaires.
Russell became a millionaire at a young age when Luminar Technologies went public in December 2020. The company’s valuation reached over $3 billion, and Russell’s personal fortune rose significantly. By age 25, he became one of the youngest self-made billionaires, with a net worth of over $2.4 billion after the IPO.
Luminar has won major contracts with leading automakers, including Volvo, Toyota, and Daimler Trucks, putting it at the forefront of next generation of autonomous cars.
Image Attribution: Collision Conf, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
