Xochi Birch Net Worth

What is Xochi Birch's net worth?

Xochi Birch is an American computer programmer, entrepreneur, and philanthropist who has a net worth of $390 million.

Xochi Birch is best known as the co-founder of Bebo, the social networking site she created with her husband, Michael Birch. During the mid-2000s, Bebo became one of the most popular social platforms in the world, especially in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and New Zealand. The site gave users a place to create profiles, share photos, post blogs, leave comments, take quizzes, and communicate with friends before Facebook became the dominant force in social media. In 2008, Xochi and Michael sold Bebo to AOL for $850 million in cash, turning the couple into two of the most successful internet entrepreneurs of their era. After Bebo collapsed under later ownership, they bought it back for $1 million in 2013. Xochi has also co-founded and supported ventures including BirthdayAlarm.com, Ringo.com, Monkey Inferno, The Battery, and philanthropic efforts connected to charity: water and Battery Powered.

Early Life

Xochi Birch was raised in California. Her father was of Mexican heritage, and she grew up in a household that valued education, creativity, and independence. She later studied abroad in London, where she met Michael Birch in a pub. The relationship became both a marriage and a business partnership.

After marrying Michael, Xochi moved to London in the 1990s and worked as a computer programmer. In 1999, she left her job so the couple could begin building internet companies together. Those early years were not instantly glamorous. The Birches spent several years working through ideas, building products, and living with the uncertainty that comes with launching startups before any of them had become major successes.

Early Internet Ventures

Before Bebo, Xochi and Michael Birch co-founded a number of online businesses. Their early projects included BirthdayAlarm.com, which helped users remember birthdays and send online greetings, and Ringo.com, an early social networking site. Ringo was sold to Tickle.com in 2003, giving the couple a meaningful success before their breakout hit.

These early companies helped the Birches understand what made people come back to a website repeatedly. They learned the value of identity, reminders, friend networks, simple sharing tools, and social habits. Those lessons became central to Bebo.

Bebo

Xochi and Michael launched Bebo in January 2005 from their home in San Francisco. The name was later explained as "Blog Early, Blog Often." The site arrived at the perfect moment. Social networking was exploding, but the eventual winner had not yet been decided. Myspace was huge. Facebook was still expanding. Teenagers and young adults were looking for ways to bring their real-world friendships online.

Bebo offered that in a simple, highly social format. Users could create profiles, upload photos, write blogs, customize pages, post comments, add friends, and interact through a variety of social features. The site became especially popular in the UK and Ireland, where it was a defining platform for many young internet users.

By the late 2000s, Bebo had tens of millions of users. In March 2008, AOL bought the company for $850 million in cash. Xochi and Michael reportedly owned about 70% of Bebo at the time, making their combined proceeds approximately $595 million before taxes and other costs.

The sale was perfectly timed. Facebook soon became the dominant social network, and Bebo's traffic collapsed under AOL ownership. AOL later sold the company for a small fraction of its purchase price, and Bebo eventually filed for bankruptcy.

In 2013, Xochi and Michael bought Bebo back for $1 million. The move made their original exit even more legendary: they had sold the company for $850 million, watched it fall apart under other owners, then reacquired it five years later for roughly 0.12% of the sale price.

(Photo by Dave M. Benett/Getty Images)

Later Work And Philanthropy

After Bebo, Xochi remained active in technology, philanthropy, and community-building projects. She and Michael co-founded Monkey Inferno, an incubator and startup studio for internet projects. They also opened The Battery, a private members club in San Francisco designed to bring together people from technology, culture, business, philanthropy, and the arts.

The Battery also became the home of Battery Powered, a nonprofit initiative that encourages members to support charitable projects. Xochi has been strongly associated with philanthropic work, including charity: water. She has personally supported the organization and used her 40th birthday to raise money for clean-water projects.

In 2015, Xochi was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, or OBE, for services to technology and online services.

Personal Life

Xochi Birch is married to Michael Birch. They have three children and have lived in San Francisco. Together, they have built a career defined by partnership: first as programmers, then as startup founders, then as philanthropists and community builders.

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