David Baszucki

David Baszucki (born January 20, 1963) is a Canadian-born American entrepreneur, engineer, and inventor. He is the co-founder of Roblox.

 Roblox 
Main article: Roblox

In December 2003, Baszucki, along with Erik Cassel – who worked as Baszucki's VP of Engineering for Interactive Physics – began working on an early prototype of Roblox under the working title DynaBlocks. It was later renamed Roblox, a portmanteau of "robots" and "blocks", in January 2004. The website was launched in 2004, whilst Roblox was officially released on September 1, 2006. In a June 2016 interview with Forbes, Baszucki stated that the idea for Roblox was inspired by the success of his Interactive Physics and Working Model software applications, especially among young students.

Baszucki owns a roughly 13% stake in the Roblox Corporation, the company that owns Roblox, a stake estimated to be worth around $470 million as of 2020. He said he would donate any future compensation he earns from Roblox's listing on the New York Stock Exchange for philanthropic purposes. In December 2021, a New York Times investigation alleged that he and his relatives used a tax break intended for small business investors in order to legally avoid tens of millions of dollars in capital gains taxes. According to Business Insider, Baszucki was the seventh-highest-paid CEO in 2021, making $232.8 million.

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Category:1963 births
Category:Living people
Category:American computer engineers
Category:American inventors
Category:Canadian businesspeople
Category:Roblox