Editor’s note: This article was first published in May 2013, when Yahoo had just agreed to buy Tumblr; Karp’s age (26) and “will sell” refer to that moment. Karp left Tumblr in 2017, and Tumblr later changed hands again (Verizon, then Automattic in 2019).
As of today, David Karp will be on the Forbes list of the 400 richest people in the United States, at the age of 26. It’s another case of a very profitable college dropout and early success, although according to his father, Michael Karp, his son isn’t driven by money and so he’ll keep doing the same thing.
According to David Karp’s father, a composer of music for film and television, his son’s success comes from doing what he was passionate about, and the 1.1 billion Yahoo will pay for Tumblr, of which Karp will take 200 million, is simply the reward for exciting work done well and for having surrounded himself with people he loved and admired both personally and professionally.
Michael Karp says his son was very bright and focused, but at 15 he said he didn’t want to study because he didn’t like school. He said what they were teaching him wasn’t useful for the real world. His father accepted the decision, and they agreed that he would be taught at home. What David wanted to learn was programming, HTML, anything to do with computers, because ever since they bought him his first computer (an Apple), that was what he spent most of his time on.
At home he learned math, science and English, and he even learned Japanese, later going to spend some time in Japan. When he came back, he went to work for a web consultancy before founding Tumblr in 2007.
See also: Success in life isn’t a marathon but a maze
His father says that when David came up with the idea, he was completely excited, as if he knew it was bound to succeed. He was so convinced by his idea because what David created was what he himself needed as a consumer, and it didn’t exist. No sooner said than done.
His father denies that David founded Tumblr in his mother’s apartment, as reported by CNBC, and says he did it in an office lent to him by a family friend, who acted as a mentor to the young man.
David Karp’s inspiration was Steve Jobs. He never missed a single one of Jobs’s speeches, and Jobs was his biggest influence on the road to success. What’s more, even though they never met, Jobs was like a second father to him.
Hence the saying: “Tell me who your heroes are and I’ll tell you who you’ll become.”
Further reading
- 18 business lessons you’ll learn sooner or later
- The best advice 9 successful businesspeople ever received
- The painful and triumphant story of entrepreneur Ramona Pierson
Featured image: Enrique Dans from Madrid, Spain, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
