Meet Steven Schwartz: The Gen Z founder who sold water bottles as a child and built a $1.6 billion company creating 650 millionaires

Whop has emerged as a fast-growing layered digital marketplace reshaping how creators monetise online audiences through courses, communities, tools and niche digital products. Unlike traditional platforms, it enables individuals to build multiple income streams by serving tightly defined micro-niches that scale through volume rather than celebrity influence. Founder Steven Schwartz, whose unconventional upbringing spanned countries such as China, the US and Singapore, brought early entrepreneurial experience before launching Whop after graduation from NYU Stern. His early work included selling street goods, building iOS apps and experimenting with digital tools that revealed how fragmented online demand can quickly become profitable. Today…