Despite being the world's youngest self-made billionaire, Austin Russell, CEO of Luminar Technologies Inc., claims that he shares similarities with others his age.

Russell, 28, has an estimated net worth of $1.6 billion, due to the performance of his Orlando, Florida-based tech startup Luminar Technologies, which currently has a market cap of $2.4 billion. The company, which Russell founded 11 years ago as a teenager, develops hardware and software meant to power self-driving cars.

Launching and maintaining a business like Russell's is a feat that few teenagers, as well as people in their 20s or 30s, can accomplish. However, Russell received assistance from a Thiel Fellowship, which granted him $100,000 to abandon his studies at Stanford University and focus on developing his company full-time.

But rather than focusing on technological expertise or business acumen, Russell credits his journey so far to two traits common among younger generations: energy and passion.

“People in their 20s have a lot of great energy,” Russell says. “They put a lot of passion [into] things and I’m certainly no exception to that. I probably take it to the extreme, and that’s very meaningful.”

Austin Russell was born in 1995 in California. He developed an interest in lasers and photonics at a young age and went on to study at Stanford University before leaving school to pursue his business.

 

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