Itthipat Kulapongvanich

Aitthipat Kulapongvanich (Thai: อิทธิพัทธ์ กุลพงษ์วณิชย์; rtgs: Itthiphat Kunlaphongwanit), or nickname Tob (Thai: ต๊อบ), is a Thai entrepreneur.

A Thai movie, The Billionaire, was loosely based on his life. The title refers to his status as a billionaire in Thai baht.

He is most well known for his product Tao Kae Noi, a fried seaweed snack, which is sold around the Asia-Pacific area. He and his family own 73% of the company and Forbes estimated his wealth at $390 million in 2016.

As a young man, Kulapongvanich gained success at playing online games and winning tournament prizes. He invested his money into selling fried chestnuts, which became popular in Thailand. With this financial backing, he went on to create the product of packaged deep fried flavored seaweed, which quickly became successful in Thailand, and was exported to Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, and the United States.

Aitthipat Kulapongvanich or Tob Ittipat was born in November 24, 1984 in Thailand and of Chinese ethnicity. He was born into a wealthy family and didn’t think too much about the future. He attained his education from kindergarten and elementary at Panapun Wittaya School, high school at St. Francis Xavier School and senior from Suankularb Wittayalai School. Now, he has graduated with a bachelor's degree in Business Administration from University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce.

When he was still 16 years old, he was addicted to online games. Even though he gained success at playing online games and winning tournament prizes because of his hobby playing online games, he was often underestimated by his teachers at school. He decided to drop out from school to become a chestnut peddler when he was 17 years old. He invested his money into selling fried chestnuts, which became popular in Thailand.

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Wikipedia