After graduating from college, Pavel Durov realized there was no way to remain connected with his classmates.

So in 2006, he launched Vkontakte, the Russian version of Facebook.

Initially confined to university circles, Vkontakte rapidly outgrew these academic boundaries, reaching an impressive 350 million users in just a few years.

However, Vkontakte’s soaring success came with challenges.

After the controversial 2011 Russian elections, Telegram turned into a hotspot for anti-government protestors rallying behind political activist Alexei Navalny, a vocal critic of Putin.

Alarmed by Vkontakte’s unchecked growth, the Kremlin pressured Pavel to remove opposition pages from the platform.

In a show of defiance, Pavel responded with a picture of a dog in a hoodie with its tongue out.

However, the Kremlin’s reply was no joke.

That night, the military raided Pavels apartment.

The unsettling experience forced Pavel to flee his country and start his next venture; a secretive messaging app called Telegram.

Launched in 2013, the app promised to shield users from the government’s prying eyes through unbeatable encryption.

Today, with over a billion registered users, Telegram is the third most downloaded social media app in the world.

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