Chris Wanstrath

Chris Wanstrath (born March 13, 1985) is an American technology entrepreneur and programmer. He is the founder of Null Games, and the co-founder and former CEO of GitHub, an Internet hosting service for software development and version control using Git. Wanstrath co-founded GitHub in 2008 and sold it to Microsoft in 2018. Before starting GitHub, he worked with CNET on GameSpot and Chowhound. In addition to GitHub, he created the Atom text editor, Ruby's Resque job queue, the Mustache templating language, and the pjax JavaScript library. According to Forbes his net worth is estimated at US$1.8-2.2 billion and is listed in America's richest entrepreneurs under 40, as well as Fortunes 40 under 40 and he was named in CNBC's Disruptor 50 list.

Early life Wanstrath was born on March 13, 1985. From a young age, he loved video games, and wanted to create his own. He left the university after getting a job in San Francisco at CNET Networks. He was a completely self-taught programmer until his job with CNET. and then president until 2014 at which time he returned to the CEO role. He was CEO until October 2018. At the time, GitHub had close to 1000 employees, over 20 million users, and $300 million in annualized recurring revenue.

In June 2018, Microsoft acquired GitHub for $7.5 billion (~$ in ) in an all-stock deal. the Mustache templating language, and the Atom text editor. He's also created the pjax JavaScript library.

In 2023 Wanstrath announced the development of a new game developer platform called Void, scheduled to launch in 2024.

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.

Null Games In February 2023, announced a new games publishing studio, Null Games. Null helps developers with marketing, development costs, porting, and publishing. The company's first released title was an ice hockey-based rogue-lite called Tape to Tape, developed by Excellent Rectangle. In its first week, 34,020 units of the game were sold.