The United States of America is known as "The Land of Opportunity" and people from around the world seek to immigrate to the USA to pursue the "The American Dream." Some nations around the globe are rife with corruption or nepotism and people born in many countries legitimately have limited opportunities and options for upward mobility. But in the United States virtually anyone can pursue their financial dreams if they make the effort to meet and impress the people that can give them an opportunity to work hard and advance. To become super wealthy typically requires some kind of innovation that impacts a large number of people, but virtually anyone with good health can work hard and make enough to buy a home and live comfortably in the United States.
Individuals that achieve the greatest financial success can generally choose to live in any city they want and they can buy or build the house of their dreams. The owners of the most expensive properties in Southern California can provide inspiration for those that fantasize about achieving massive financial success. In many countries the grandest properties are inherited or controlled by government figures, but the owners of many of the trophy properties in Los Angeles are self-made billionaires that started with virtually nothing, including some that were born outside the US.
Jan Koum was born in Kyiv and moved to the US at the age of 16. In 2009 he founded WhatsApp, which Facebook later purchased for $19 billion. In recent years Koum has invested over $300 million in some of LA's premier properties, including Jeffrey Katzenberg's former home in Beverly Hills and not one, but two adjacent beach front Malibu properties, which are not coincidentally on the same beach as the 7 acre nine figure property (NFP) that Marc Andreessen bought for $177 million. Andreessen initially became famous as the co-author of Mosaic, the first widely used web browser, then went on to co-found venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, which invested in a growing list of hugely successful firms including Facebook, Twitter, and Skype.
Nile Niami spent about a decade building and promoting the >100,000 square foot property dubbed The One which he hoped to sell as the most expensive home in the USA. It did sell for nine figures, but didn't even make the top five in LA when it finally ended up on the auction block prior to completion. It was purchased by Richard Saghian, the son of Iranian immigrants who started Fashion Nova in 2006 after dropping out of college. Saghian also recently paid $40 million cash for a Malibu beach house. Evan Spiegel also dropped out of college (Stanford) to create Snapchat and then became the youngest public company CEO at age 26 before buying his NFP.
David Saperstein dropped out of college to sell used cars. After he got stuck in a snowstorm he came up with the idea to sell traffic reports on the radio which led to the founding of Metro Networks in 1978. The company grew to serve over 1,500 radio stations, went public, then sold to Westwood One in 1999 for $1.25 billion in stock. Saperstein and then wife Suzanne build and then sold Fleur de Lys (the most expensive home in the US at that time when it sold for $102 million). They also built the massive Hummingbird Nest Ranch on 123 acres in Simi Valley, CA (which is seen in many TV shows and movies). David Saperstein purchased the estate in the 1990s for his then-wife and marketed it for $75M after their 2007 divorce (article about the sale). Saperstein also bought a Malibu house once listed for $115M.
In 2012, Austin Russell founded Luminar while he was still in high school. After starting Stanford he won $100,000 from The Thiel Fellowship in 2013, leading him to drop out and focus on Luminar full-time. The company spent its first five years in stealth mode but in 2020 Luminar went public, making Russell the world's youngest self-made billionaire. He then splurged on a brand new 20K sq. ft. home in Pacific Palisades with a spectacular view (although not in the Platinum Triangle and on a much smaller lot than the local properties that have sold for more). Brian Armstrong entered the Y Combinator startup accelerator in 2012 and received a $150,000 investment to fund Coinbase, which went public in 2021 (and then Armstrong purchasedhis NFP shortly thereafter.)
The year before Russell was declared a Billionaire, Forbes declared Kylie Jenner the world's youngest self-made billionaire at age 21 after she sold part of her cosmetics company. She then purchased a home built by luxury developer Asher Gala. Her older sister Kim founded SKIMs in 2019, which was recently valued at $4 billion, cementing Kardashian's billionaire status. She recently added to her real estate portfolio by purchasing a $70 million Malibu home (listed earlier in the year for $99M) from Adam Weiss & Barret Swatek (who bought it from Cindy Crawford & Rande Gerber).
Byron Allen was born in Detroit, but moved with his divorced mother to Los Angeles and in his teens started doing stand-up comedy at amateur nights. At age 18, Allen made his television debut on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson (who happened to own one of Malibu's nicest properties). In 1993 he founded Entertainment Studios, which later acquired The Weather Channel. He recently purchased a $100 million property in Malibu (which happens to be next door to Jan Koum).
Then in 2023, a Tadao Ando designed property on the same beach quietly listed for $295 million sold to Jay-z and Beyoncé for $190 million (or some have reported $200 million). Jay-z was raised in a public housing project in Brooklyn. He sold burned CDs out of his car before becoming extraordinarily successful with a record 14 number-one solo albums, expanding into other businesses, and becoming a billionaire.
Jeffe Greene was a busboy at the Breakers hotel in Palm Beach, Florida before venturing into developing real estate. In 2006 he talked to John Paulson (who owns one of the most expensive properties near Aspen Colorado, which is larger than the White House and was once listed for $135 million) and they both made huge fortunes participating in The Big Short. Greene then built his 53K square foot masterpiecePalazzo di Amore which sits perched on 25 prime acres of Beverly Hills and was listed for lease for $299K a month (although it did not sell for his prior nine figure asking price).
Someday in the future the biggest, most valuable property may get built on the property that makes even Palazzo's lot look small. The 157 acre property known as "The Mountain" was once marketed for ten figures, but ended up at auction before reverting back to the Mark Hughes Trust. Mark Hughes, for those unfamiliar, grew up with his mother on welfare after a divorce (she later died of an overdose). Mark dropped out of school and founded Herbalife in 1980 and went on to enormous wealth, which he partially diversified into one of the largest Malibu beach properties (near Kardashian's) in addition to The Mountain. He passed away at age 44 with alcohol and antidepressants in his system leaving his then nine year old son as beneficiary of the estate (including The Mountain, which currently sits peacefully overlooking all of Los Angeles, waiting for its next chapter).
The not quite as large 120 acre property known as Enchanted Hill had previously been the playground of Hollywood stars before being acquired and flattened by Paul Allen, who had plans to redevelop it before he passed away in 2018. Eric Schmidt of Google fame purchased the property at the start of 2022 for $65 million and it will be fascinating to see what his plans are for that property.
Mohamed Hadid was involved in Jeff Greene's Palazzo and many other luxury properties and had planned multiplenine figureproperties for the hilltops just east of Franklin Canyon, but ran into snags including well funded and legally adept local residents, which appears to be similar to Michael Scott's abandoned plans to develop his "Giga Mansion" that ran into opposition from Save Our Hillsides (9650 Cedarbrook was relisted for $68,000,000).
Another college dropout with a history of buying NFPs is Michael Dell (founder of computer maker Dell). Dell built an approximately 33,000-square-foot Austin Texas compound with adjacent property on more than 100 acres, before falling for Hawaii in a big way. Dell’s Big Island of Hawaii home at Hualalai is 18,500 square feet and is called the "Raptor Residence" per the name of the limited-liability company used to purchase it. According to Bloomberg, Dell liked Hualalai so much that in 2006 he bought the whole thing—hotel, resort, everything except the private homes (originally with Rockpoint Group, and later Rob Walton). According to this source Dell and his partners bought the Four Seasons in 2006 for over $500 million. The resorts other prominent homeowners include Ken Griffin, Howard Schultz (Starbucks), Charles Schwab, George Roberts and Warren Buffett’s sister Bertie (each owning properties estimed to be worth around $20M or more). His private investment firm MSD Capital was set up to manage his family’s fortune and in 2004 it previously bought the Four Seasons Maui for $280 million. In 2014, Dell spent $100 million on a penthouse on New York’s Billionaire’s Row (a record for the city at the time).
A few fun facts.
Chamath Palihapitiya was born in Sri Lanka and his family left as refugees and eventually made it to the US. At 14 years old he worked at Burger King to help support his family. He worked his way through several position prior to becoming a senior executive at Facebook and later started his venture capital firm Social Capital. He purchased a vacation home in 2014 for 2,739 Bitcoin, which was then worth $1.6 million, but in early 2021 those Bitcoin supposedly would have been worth $128 million.
Check out the Glass Onion Greek Isle satirically listed on Zillow for $450,000,000, featured in Netflix's Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, which was apparently filmed at Amanzoe, a luxury hotel near Porto Heli, Greece.
Several websites list the $155M "Pinnacle" in Montana, attributed to Tim Blixseth, which was planned but neverhappened.
For those with more modest goals, they can still get inspiration from NFPs regarding color, style, and/or landscaping they would like to buy or build someday, even if it is likely to be smaller and in a less pricey neighborhood.
The United States of America is known as "The Land of Opportunity" and people from around the world seek to immigrate to the USA to pursue the "The American Dream." Some nations around the globe are rife with corruption or nepotism and people born in many countries legitimately have limited opportunities and options for upward mobility. But in the United States virtually anyone can pursue their financial dreams if they make the effort to meet and impress the people that can give them an opportunity to work hard and advance. To become super wealthy typically requires some kind of innovation that impacts a large number of people, but virtually anyone with good health can work hard and make enough to buy a home and live comfortably in the United States.