Elon Musk, Michael Dell and more of tech's richest before the billions — their unmissable early photos

Pictured in 2004, at the start of his rapid ascent toward becoming one of the world's most controversial figures, and also its richest. By 2004, Elon Musk had already built hundreds of millions through X.com and Zip2, but achieved major financial windfall with the creation of 2002's SpaceX and 2003's Tesla.

Pictured here at the 1998 PC Forum, Michael Dell pioneered the idea of selling cut-price PCs directly to consumers, buying several IBM computers and then selling them on his own. He created Dell Computers in 1984, which would eventually go on to become the conglomerate Dell Inc.

Pictured here in 1997, three years after he founded Amazon as an online bookstore operating out of a rented garage in Bellevue, Washington. Jeff Bezos began the company as a way to respond to the explosion in web usage by the mid-90s, partnering with his then-wife MacKenzie Scott to create their online business.

Pictured here in 1981, a few years after co-creating Apple with Steve Wozniak. By the age of 25, heading into the '80s, Steve Jobs was already one of the richest people in the nation, boasting a net worth then of an estimated $250 million. Jobs passed away in 2011.

Pictured in 1977, two years after co-founding Microsoft with Paul Allen. Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard to begin work on their BASIC software. A forgotten piece of history from their early years, however, was Bill's arrest in 1977 for running a stop sign without a license, leading to a now-iconic mugshot.

Pictured in 2004, in the early stages of the launch of "Thefacebook," now simply Facebook. As the story goes, and was eventually told in 2010's The Social Network, Mark Zuckerberg created the social networking platform from his dorm in Harvard as a way to build connections through online profiles. The platform was soon spread to other universities before going live globally.

While she may not be a billionaire anymore, Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes was at one point named the youngest and wealthiest self-made female billionaire in the United States. Pictured here during her two years at Stanford University, she created Theranos in 2003, which exploded in valuation a decade later with claims of revolutionizing blood testing, which would later be called into question and result in indictments of fraud and a net worth currently of $0.