Chris Wanstrath

Wanstrath was born on March 13, 1985. From a young age, he loved video games, and wanted to create his own. He graduated from St. Xavier High School in Cincinnati in 2003 and briefly studied English at the University of Cincinnati.[http://magazine.uc.edu/editors_picks/recent_features/wanstrath.html GitHub co-founder Chris Wanstrath shares his story, University of Cincinnati]{{cite magazine|title=Alumni X-cerpts|magazine=St. Xavier High School Magazine|location=Cincinnati, Ohio|publisher=St. Xavier High School|date=Winter 2014|page=21|url=https://issuu.com/st.xavierhighschool/docs/20114_stxavier_exlr/23|via=Issuu}} He left the university after getting a job in San Francisco at CNET Networks.

Before the success of GitHub, Wanstrath ran a Ruby on Rails consulting shop with P. J. Hyett (a GitHub co-founder). Prior to this, Wanstrath was at CNET Networks, where he worked on GameSpot and the launch of Chowhound.{{Cite web |title=NASA : Open Source Summit Speaker - Chris Wanstrath |url=https://www.nasa.gov/open/source/speakers/chriswanstrath.html |access-date=February 10, 2017 |archive-date=March 15, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110315022421/https://www.nasa.gov/open/source/speakers/chriswanstrath.html |url-status=dead }}{{Cite web |title=Chris Wanstrath |url=https://computerhistory.org/profile/chris-wanstrath/ |access-date=2023-07-03 |website=CHM |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Jr |first=Tom Huddleston |date=2018-06-04 |title=How this 33-year-old college dropout co-founded GitHub, which just sold to Microsoft for $7.5 billion |url=https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/04/chris-wanstrath-co-founded-github-which-microsoft-bought-for-billions.html |access-date=2023-07-03 |website=CNBC |language=en}} He was a completely self-taught programmer until his job with CNET.

In 2008, Wanstrath co-founded GitHub and the service had 100,000 users by July 2009.{{Cite web |last=Jr |first=Tom Huddleston |date=2018-06-04 |title=How this 33-year-old college dropout co-founded GitHub, which just sold to Microsoft for $7.5 billion |url=https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/04/chris-wanstrath-co-founded-github-which-microsoft-bought-for-billions.html |access-date=2023-06-23 |website=CNBC |language=en}} It was named to CNBC's Disruptor List five times between 2008 and 2018. While at GitHub he created the Electron software framework.{{Cite web |title=Many Companies Use Electron To Build Desktop Applications – JojoCms |url=https://www.jojocms.org/many-companies-use-electron-to-build-desktop-applications/ |access-date=2023-08-03 |website=www.jojocms.org}} Wanstrath served as its CEO until the Series A round of funding in 2012{{Cite web |date=2012-07-09 |title=Why GitHub abandoned the bootstrapper's ship for a $100M Series A |url=https://venturebeat.com/business/github-funding-say-what/ |access-date=2023-06-23 |website=VentureBeat |language=en-US}} and then president until 2014 at which time he returned to the CEO role.{{cite web |title=GitHub President Becomes CEO, CEO Becomes President In Executive Role Swap |date=January 21, 2014 |url=https://techcrunch.com/2014/01/21/github-president-becomes-ceo-president-becomes-ceo-in-executive-role-swap/}} He was CEO until October 2018.{{cite news |last1=Konrad |first1=Alex |title=GitHub CEO Chris Wanstrath To Step Down After Finding His Own Replacement |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2017/08/17/github-ceo-chris-wanstrath-to-step-down/ |access-date=27 October 2018 |work=Forbes}} At the time, GitHub had close to 1000 employees, over 20 million users, and $300 million in annualized recurring revenue.{{Cite web |last=Novet |first=Jordan |date=2017-08-18 |title=The CEO of $2 billion start-up GitHub is stepping down |url=https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/17/github-ceo-chris-wanstrath-is-stepping-down.html |access-date=2023-07-19 |website=CNBC |language=en}}

In June 2018, Microsoft acquired GitHub for $7.5 billion (~${{Format price|{{Inflation|index=US-GDP|value=7500000000|start_year=2018}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US-GDP}}) in an all-stock deal.{{Cite web |title=Microsoft finalizes its $7.5 billion GitHub acquisition |url=https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-finalizes-its-7-5-billion-github-acquisition/ |access-date=2022-12-21 |website=ZDNET |language=en}} At the time, GitHub was the world's largest host service for software code. In addition to GitHub, Wanstrath created the job queue program Resque,{{Citation |title=Resque |date=2023-07-20 |url=https://github.com/resque/resque |access-date=2023-07-21 |publisher=Resque}} the Mustache templating language,{{Cite web |title=Electron vs Handlebars.js {{!}} What are the differences? |url=https://stackshare.io/stackups/electron-vs-handlebars |access-date=2023-07-21 |website=StackShare |language=en}} and the Atom text editor.{{Cite web |title=Another Weird PC Design, This One Intentionally Hilarious |url=https://www.core77.com/posts/46325/Another-Weird-PC-Design-This-One-Intentionally-Hilarious |access-date=2023-07-21 |website=Core77 |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Lardinois |first=Frederic |date=2015-06-25 |title=GitHub's Atom Text Editor Hits 1.0, Now Has Over 350,000 Monthly Active Users |url=https://techcrunch.com/2015/06/25/githubs-atom-text-editor-hits-1-0-now-has-over-350000-monthly-active-users/ |access-date=2023-07-21 |website=TechCrunch |language=en-US}}{{Cite magazine |last=Metz |first=Cade |title=GitHub Atom's Code-Editor Nerds Take Over Their Universe |language=en-US |magazine=Wired |url=https://www.wired.com/2015/06/github-atoms-code-editor-nerds-take-universe/ |access-date=2023-08-03 |issn=1059-1028}} He's also created the pjax JavaScript library.{{Cite web |date=2022-11-30 |title=How to build a fast website |url=https://volument.com/blog/how-to-make-a-fast-website |access-date=2023-07-21 |website=Insight-led web analytics / Volument}}

Wanstrath is on the board of trustees for the Computer History Museum.{{Cite web |title=Leadership |url=https://computerhistory.org/leadership/ |access-date=2023-08-01 |website=CHM |language=en}}

In 2023 Wanstrath announced the development of a new game developer platform called Void, scheduled to launch in 2024.{{Cite web |date=2023-09-15 |title=GitHub cofounder Chris Wanstrath teases new game development engine |url=https://www.shacknews.com/article/137082/github-founder-game-engine |access-date=2024-05-30 |website=Shacknews |language=en}}

In 2024, Wanstrath and Andreas Kling launched the Ladybird Browser Initiative, a non-profit whose goal is to develop a new web browser that does not rely on corporate deals or advertising. Anticipated release of the browser is Summer of 2026.{{Cite web |last=online |first=heise |date=2024-07-04 |title=Ladybird web browser takes off: One million US dollars from GitHub founder |url=https://www.heise.de/en/news/Ladybird-web-browser-takes-off-One-million-US-dollars-from-GitHub-founder-9789840.html |access-date=2024-12-23 |website=iX Magazin |language=en}}

In February 2023, announced a new games publishing studio, Null Games.{{Cite web |date=2023-02-01 |title=GitHub founder launches Null Games publishing studio |url=https://venturebeat.com/games/github-co-founder-launches-null-games-publishing-studio/ |access-date=2023-07-13 |website=VentureBeat |language=en-US}} Null helps developers with marketing, development costs, porting, and publishing.{{Cite web |last= |date=2023-02-01 |title=Github co-founder Chris Wanstrath forms publisher Null Games |url=https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/github-co-founder-chris-wanstrath-forms-publisher-null-games |access-date=2023-07-19 |website=Game Developer |language=en}} The company's first released title was an ice hockey-based rogue-lite called Tape to Tape, developed by Excellent Rectangle.{{Cite web |date=2023-02-01 |title=GitHub founder launches Null Games publishing studio |url=https://venturebeat.com/games/github-co-founder-launches-null-games-publishing-studio/ |access-date=2023-07-26 |website=VentureBeat |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Bartelson |first=Eric |date=2023-05-10 |title=Tape to Tape by Excellent Rectangle is the world's first hockey roguelite |url=https://premortem.games/2023/05/10/tape-to-tape-by-excellent-rectangle-is-the-worlds-first-hockey-roguelite/ |access-date=2023-07-26 |website=PreMortem Games |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |date=2023-05-16 |title=Tape To Tape: How an indie sports title generated amazing sales – How To Market A Game |url=https://howtomarketagame.com/2023/05/16/tape-to-tape-how-an-indie-sports-title-generated-amazing-sales/ |access-date=2023-07-26 |language=en-US}} In its first week, 34,020 units of the game were sold. Null Games states on its website that it will not “publish mobile games or games with gambling, loot boxes, or any other player-hostile behavior.”{{Cite web |last= |date=2023-02-01 |title=Github co-founder Chris Wanstrath forms publisher Null Games |url=https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/github-co-founder-chris-wanstrath-forms-publisher-null-games |access-date=2023-08-01 |website=Game Developer |language=en}}

Wanstrath was a speaker at NASA’s open source summit. He has given keynote talks at the International RailsConf, Startup Riot Atlanta, Rails Summit Latin America, and different regional and international conferences. He gave the keynote addresses at the Esri Developer Summit in 2014, at the GitHub Universe Conference from 2015 to 2017 and the GitHub Satellite Conference in 2016 and 2017.{{Cite web |last=Peterson |first=Becky |title=The CEO of GitHub, which caters to coders, thinks automation will bring an end to traditional software programming |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/github-ceo-wanstrath-says-automation-will-replace-software-coding-2017-10 |access-date=2023-08-09 |website=Business Insider |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Governor |first=James |date=2017-05-26 |title=Just how many darned developers are there in the world? GitHub is puzzled |url=https://redmonk.com/jgovernor/2017/05/26/just-how-many-darned-developers-are-there-in-the-world-github-is-puzzled/ |access-date=2023-08-15 |website=James Governor's Monkchips |language=en-US}}

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Category:1985 births

Category:Living people

Category:American technology chief executives

Category:American businesspeople

Category:American computer programmers

Category:Businesspeople in software

Category:American technology company founders

Category:St. Xavier High School (Ohio) alumni

Category:University of Cincinnati alumni

Category:GitHub people

Category:People from Ohio

Category:Businesspeople from Cincinnati