Christopher Klaus, founder of Internet Security Systems, made a surprising announcement during his commencement address at Georgia Tech on Friday. He pledged to cover the startup incorporation costs for every graduate this year, from undergraduates to PhDs. If every graduate takes him up on his offer, the gift could be worth millions.
Klaus founded his cybersecurity company in 1994 while a student at Georgia Tech. One of his advisers provided the spark that would turn his idea into a billion-dollar company by asking if he had ever thought of commercializing his project. This question became a pivotal point for Klaus to start his entrepreneurial journey.
His first product automatically probed a network for vulnerabilities and provided actions for fixing security holes. People were willing to pay for his idea, so Klaus dropped out of Tech as a sophomore to focus on his startup full-time. The company eventually went public in the late 1990s and was acquired by IBM for more than $1 billion in 2006.
Klaus’s generous graduation gift
Klaus has been giving back to Georgia Tech for decades, even giving the school equity in his startup that funded the Klaus Advanced Computing Building on campus. He also helped launch the school’s accelerator, CREATE-X, and is now the founder and CEO of Fusen, a platform that helps student founders.
Georgia Tech’s president, Ángel Cabrera, called Klaus their version of Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates, someone who got deeply involved in his project as a student and decided to drop out of school to make it a reality. The difference, Cabrera added, is that after Klaus became successful and wealthy, his immediate next thought was how to help others make their dreams come true. Though Klaus never graduated from Georgia Tech, the university bestowed on him an honorary doctorate on Friday morning.
Klaus framed it as a 30-year detour from getting his degree. His gift to the Class of 2025 follows in the tradition of other high-profile gifts during commencement speeches at Atlanta universities. In 2022, Pinky Cole Hayes, the founder of Slutty Vegan, announced during her speech at Clark Atlanta University that she was gifting seniors their own limited liability corporation.
The most high-profile gift is likely billionaire investor and philanthropist Robert Smith’s surprise announcement that he was covering the student loan debt of the entire Morehouse College Class of 2019.
Photo by; Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash