This tech CEO went from being window cleaner to billionaire. Meet Roblox's David Baszucki

David Baszucki is the co-founder and CEO of Roblox. The Canadian-born American entrepreneur is currently worth $5 billion. (Image credit: David Baszucki/X)

Roblox CEO David Baszucki is currently at the helm of a $60 billion gaming platform with a personal net worth of $5 billion, but his early career bore little resemblance to the success he is known for today. Speaking to students at Stanford University, the 62-year-old tech CEO reflected on a period of intense uncertainty — one he argues mirrors the experience of many Gen Z graduates struggling to find direction in a slowing job market.

Baszucki told students that one of the most important lessons of his career was learning to stop overvaluing the opinions of others. “A lot of my development has been trying to, over time, ignore advice I’ve been given,” Fortune quoted him as saying. He recalled that mentors, professors, and friends weren’t always helpful guides when he was feeling adrift. Instead, he urged young professionals to listen when told to “trust your gut.”

After graduating from Stanford in 1985, he had few concrete options. His résumé contained little more than a summer spent cleaning windows with his brother. He described that period as “a terrible time,” marked by confusion and a misguided attempt to quantify his future on a spreadsheet comparing nine possible careers. “It was, like, a really weird way to try to figure out your career,” he said.

Baszucki eventually secured a salaried post‑college job, but the next two to three years were spent in what he now calls “the absolute worst jobs in the world.” Those roles left him discouraged and uncertain. The turning point came only when he stepped back and followed his instincts instead of external expectations.

That reset led him to build Knowledge Revolution, an educational software company he founded and later sold for $20 million in 1998. Even then, he said, he expected to be poached for a CEO role. When those calls never came, he again found himself directionless — another moment that required him to resist relying on others’ advice. “Time and time again, you have to participate in making your own reality,” he told Fortune earlier this year.