Meet Marcin Kleczynski, who was 14 when a computer virus led him to start a side hustle; how did he turn it into a multi-hundred-million-dollar company?

Marcin Kleczynski is an entrepreneur who was a teenager when he started a side hustle. It would then go on to become a cybersecurity firm. He grew up in the Chicago area after moving to the US from Poland at a young age. Around 2003, when he was 14, he downloaded a video game. The download infected his parents' computer. It started displaying unwanted advertisements and pop-ups. The antivirus system already installed on the computer failed to remove it. He turned to online cybersecurity forums for help. They then guided him through a process of identifying and removing the malware. It reportedly took around three days to clean the computer. This made him realise that removing malware was unnecessarily complicated and that there was an opportunity to build a simpler solution.

How did he develop the tool?

Marcin Kleczynski was not initially an experienced professional programmer. He taught himself coding using online communities and programming resources. He started developing malware-removal utilities to tackle infections that many antivirus products were missing. His early work included a tool that helped remove rogue security software.

One of the people he connected with through an online security forum was Bruce Harrison, who later became his business partner.

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How a teenage project became Malwarebytes?

Kleczynski and Harrison worked to develop the first version of Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. The software was officially released on January 21, 2008, when Kleczynski was around 18, according to Entrepreneur.

The initial product focused on detecting and removing malware that traditional antivirus programmes could miss. The company gained early traction through online forums and word-of-mouth recommendations.

The same internet community that helped Kleczynski fix his computer became an important source of early users.

In an interview with Entrepreneur, he said Malwarebytes began generating revenue within days of launching its first product. Within four months, the business had grown enough to make him reconsider whether he should continue attending university.

In a 2014 interview with VentureBeat, he said the company generated around $500,000 in its first year of business. The free product helped Malwarebytes reach users who needed to remove infections, while its growing user base helped establish its reputation.

How big is the business?

According to the Entrepreneur, Kleczynski described Malwarebytes as a several-hundred-million-dollar business. He said the company was profitable, growing and serving millions of users globally. He also describes its expansion from consumer cybersecurity products into enterprise services and managed service providers.