Markus Persson taught himself programming on his father's Commodore 128 at the age of seven in Stockholm. After working as a gameplay developer at King (creators of Candy Crush) and jAlbum, Persson spent his evenings building experimental voxel sandboxes inspired by Dwarf Fortress and Infiniminer.
In May 2009, Persson released an early alpha version of Minecraft onto the TIGSource forums. With its limitless procedurally generated 3D block worlds, survival mechanics, and infinite creative freedom, Minecraft captured the imagination of gamers across the globe. Players willingly paid for early access via PayPal, allowing Persson to leave his day job.
In 2010, Persson incorporated Mojang alongside Carl Manneh and Jakob Porsér. Rejecting external venture funding, Mojang scaled with sheer organic profitability, generating hundreds of millions in profit. In September 2014, Persson sold Mojang and Minecraft to Microsoft for $2.5 billion, marking one of the most astonishing bootstrapped technology triumphs in history.
