Early Life
Thomas "Tom" Preston-Werner was born on May 27, 1979, in Dubuque, Iowa. Growing up, he experienced the loss of his father at a young age. He attended Dubuque Senior High School and later enrolled at Harvey Mudd College, where he studied for two years before dropping out to pursue his passion for programming.
Rise to Success
Preston-Werner's career took off when he co-founded GitHub in 2008 with Chris Wanstrath, PJ Hyett, and Scott Chacon. The platform quickly became the leading platform for software development and collaboration, hosting millions of repositories by 2013. In 2018, Microsoft acquired GitHub for $7.5 billion. Before GitHub, Preston-Werner created Gravatar, which was sold to Automattic in 2007.
Key Business Strategies
Preston-Werner's success can be attributed to several key strategies. He focused on creating user-friendly tools for developers and fostered a strong open-source community. His ability to understand the needs of developers and create a platform that facilitated collaboration was crucial. After leaving GitHub, he co-founded Chatterbug and founded Preston-Werner Ventures to invest in startups.
Philanthropy
Tom Preston-Werner and his wife Theresa are committed to philanthropy, pledging to donate the majority of their wealth to charitable causes through The Giving Pledge. They founded the 128 Collective Foundation in 2019 to support environmental and progressive initiatives. In 2020, they contributed $1 million to the San Francisco COVID-19 response.