Introduction
In 1990, David Steward and Jim Kavanaugh co-founded World Wide Technology (WWT) in St. Louis, Missouri. The company began as a small reseller of printers, computers, and telecommunications equipment, but over the following decades it expanded into a global technology solutions provider serving enterprise, government, and service-provider customers.
Steward brought more than sales experience to the business. Before WWT, he had already built companies in the transportation and freight-auditing industry and had seen firsthand how technology could change the way businesses operated. When WWT launched, Steward contributed approximately $250,000 in startup capital, while Kavanaugh brought experience in technology distribution and sales.
Today, WWT remains privately held and operates on a much larger scale. The company says it has more than 14,000 team members, more than 60 locations worldwide, and customers in up to 130 countries across six continents. Forbes currently describes WWT as a company with approximately $20 billion in annual sales and identifies Steward as its founder, chairman, and majority owner.
Who Is David Steward?
David Steward is an entrepreneur and the founder and chairman of World Wide Technology. He was born in Chicago and raised in Clinton, Missouri, where he grew up in a family of eight children. His father held several jobs, including mechanic, janitor, and trash collector, while the family lived and worked on a small farm. Forbes has also reported that Steward and his siblings were among the first Black children to integrate schools and other community facilities in Clinton.
Steward graduated from Central Missouri State University, now the University of Central Missouri, in 1973 with a degree in business management. After college, he worked as a substitute teacher and for the Boy Scouts of America before moving into sales and marketing. He eventually joined Missouri Pacific Railroad, where WWT says he was the first person of color hired to sell rail services. He later worked for Union Pacific and Federal Express. In 1981, Steward was recognized as FedEx's salesman of the year and was later inducted into the company's Sales Hall of Fame.
Those experiences gave Steward a foundation in sales, customer relationships, and business development long before he entered the technology industry.
How David Steward Started His First Business
Steward became an entrepreneur before World Wide Technology existed.
In 1983, he acquired Transportation Business Specialists, a company that audited shipping invoices and identified overcharges for large companies. Two years later, he established Transport Administrative Services, which helped businesses evaluate transportation discounts.
One of the company's major opportunities came from Union Pacific, Steward's former employer. The railroad asked him to examine approximately $15 billion worth of bills covering a three-year period. Handling that volume of information required Steward to build a local-area network from scratch, connecting dozens of computers so they could work together.
That project changed how Steward viewed his business. He realized that technology was becoming an increasingly important part of how companies handled information and solved operational problems. That realization would eventually help lead him toward the creation of WWT.
How World Wide Technology Started
World Wide Technology was incorporated in Missouri in 1990. The company started with a small team and roughly 4,000 square feet of office space.
Forbes reported that Steward contributed approximately $250,000 in startup capital. Kavanaugh, meanwhile, had no cash to contribute initially and did not receive equity in the company at first. According to Forbes, he later earned his first 15% stake in 1995 after proving his value to the business.
WWT's original business was relatively straightforward: it resold printers, computers and telecommunications equipment. The company was not initially a global technology integrator. It was a small technology reseller trying to establish itself in a competitive market.
This distinction is important because a commonly repeated version of Steward's story says he borrowed $2,000 from his father to start World Wide Technology. That $2,000 is associated with an earlier business venture, Transportation Business Specialists, rather than WWT. Forbes' account of WWT's founding identifies approximately $250,000 as Steward's startup contribution.
The Early Years Were Difficult
WWT's early growth was far from guaranteed.
Steward and Kavanaugh brought some existing clients into the new business, including AT&T and Southwestern Bell, but the company struggled to generate enough additional business. Forbes reported that WWT eventually fell behind on payments connected to a $1 million line of credit. Heating and trash bills also went unpaid.
The financial pressure became especially personal in 1993, when a collection company repossessed Steward's two-year-old Lincoln Continental from the company's office parking lot. His briefcase was reportedly still inside the vehicle.
The episode illustrates how different WWT's financial position was during its early years compared with the scale of the company today.
How Government Contracts Helped WWT Grow
A major change came when WWT began winning government contracts as a minority-owned small business.
According to Forbes, federal customers included the Departments of Defense, Transportation, and Agriculture. These contracts provided another source of business while WWT's private-sector operations were also beginning to expand.
The company's growth during this period was significant. Forbes reported that WWT's revenue increased from approximately $8 million in 1992 to $135 million in 1997 and then to $924 million in 2001. By 2001, the company's growth had made it too large to continue qualifying for the special government status it had previously used.
The government business was therefore one part of a broader transition. WWT was increasingly serving private companies while expanding beyond its original role as a technology reseller.
From Technology Reseller to Technology Solutions Provider
As the technology industry changed, WWT expanded what it offered customers.
The company moved beyond simply selling hardware and began providing services around networking, infrastructure, data centers, cloud technologies, software, and digital transformation. WWT's CEO Jim Kavanaugh has described the evolution as a shift from reselling products toward building infrastructure and services around those products and eventually creating environments where customers could test and evaluate integrated technology architectures.
One of the most important pieces of that strategy became WWT's Advanced Technology Center, or ATC.
The ATC provides a collaborative environment where customers and technology partners can evaluate hardware and software, test architectures, and demonstrate potential solutions before deploying them. WWT has continued investing in the center as technologies such as cloud computing, cybersecurity, data analytics, and artificial intelligence have developed.
This helped change WWT's role in the technology supply chain. Instead of simply helping customers purchase technology, the company increasingly positioned itself around helping them determine how different technologies could work together.
The Partnerships Behind WWT's Growth
Technology companies rarely operate alone, and partnerships have been central to WWT's business model.
WWT works with major technology companies and integrates products and services into larger solutions. Its ecosystem has included companies such as Microsoft, Cisco, Dell Technologies, NVIDIA, HPE, AWS, and other hardware and software providers.
The company's Advanced Technology Center is designed around this type of collaboration, bringing technologies together so they can be tested and evaluated in integrated environments. WWT says its ATC allows clients and partners to conceptualize, test, and validate technology before deploying solutions at scale.
This approach became increasingly important as enterprise technology became more interconnected. Businesses were no longer making isolated decisions about computers or networking equipment. They were dealing with cloud platforms, cybersecurity, data infrastructure, applications, and increasingly complex AI systems.
How Artificial Intelligence Became a Major Part of WWT's Strategy
Artificial intelligence has become one of WWT's major areas of investment.
In December 2023, WWT announced plans to invest more than $500 million over three years in technology, infrastructure, and people to help organizations adopt AI. The investment included the creation of an AI Proving Ground within the company's Advanced Technology Center.
The AI Proving Ground was designed to give organizations an environment where they could try, test, and validate AI applications before committing significant resources to broader deployments.
WWT has continued building its AI capabilities through partnerships, infrastructure, and engineering resources. In 2024, the company described its AI strategy as including work with technology partners such as NVIDIA and the development of AI-focused labs and solutions.
The company's current business also reflects this shift. WWT says it helps organizations design, build, and scale AI, cloud, cybersecurity, and infrastructure solutions.
The Softchoice Acquisition
WWT's expansion continued with its acquisition of Softchoice.
The transaction was completed in March 2025 for approximately US$1.3 billion. Softchoice brought additional capabilities in software, cloud, cybersecurity, and AI, while also expanding WWT's reach into commercial and small-to-medium-sized businesses, particularly in the United States and Canada.
The acquisition was significant because WWT had historically had a strong presence among large enterprise and government customers. Softchoice added another customer base and expanded the combined company's capabilities in software and cloud-focused services.
By 2026, WWT executives were describing Softchoice as an important part of the company's expansion into the SMB and midmarket segments.
David Steward's Approach to Opportunity
Steward's career has followed a pattern of recognizing opportunities outside the areas where he initially operated.
He began in sales, moved into transportation and freight auditing, encountered increasingly complex technology through his work with Union Pacific, and then helped establish a technology reseller that eventually expanded into systems integration and technology services.
His story is therefore not simply about starting a technology company. It is also about adapting as the business environment changed.
The technology WWT sells and integrates has changed dramatically since 1990, but the company has continued to build around a similar fundamental need: helping organizations determine which technologies they need and how those technologies can work together.
Steward has also kept WWT privately held. The company's current press materials identify it as privately held, with Steward serving as chairman and Jim Kavanaugh serving as co-founder and CEO.
World Wide Technology Today
World Wide Technology is now a global technology solutions provider headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri.
WWT's current company information says it serves clients in up to 130 countries across six continents, with more than 14,000 team members and more than 60 locations worldwide. Its services cover areas including AI, cloud, cybersecurity, infrastructure, and other enterprise technology needs.
The company also remains privately held. David Steward is its founder and chairman, while Jim Kavanaugh is co-founder and CEO.
WWT describes itself as the largest Black-owned company in the United States. That description comes from the company itself and has also been reported by other business and technology publications.
Forbes' September 2026 profile lists Steward as the majority owner of the approximately $20 billion-sales company. Forbes' 2026 Forbes 400 profile placed his estimated net worth at approximately $12.3 billion as of September 15, 2026. Net-worth estimates can change as asset values change.
What Can Be Learned From World Wide Technology's Growth?
World Wide Technology's history shows how a company can change its business model as its customers and the technology industry evolve.
WWT began by reselling technology products. It later expanded into integration, engineering, consulting, cloud, cybersecurity, software, and advanced infrastructure. The company's Advanced Technology Center became an important part of its approach to testing and validating technologies, while more recent investments have placed AI at the center of its growth strategy.
The company's history also shows how long-term growth can follow an unconventional path. Steward did not begin his career as a technology engineer. His background was primarily in sales and business development, and his earlier transportation businesses exposed him to technology before WWT became his primary focus.
From a small St. Louis startup in 1990 to a global company serving customers around the world, WWT's history has been closely tied to the changing role of technology in business.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who founded World Wide Technology?
David L. Steward founded World Wide Technology in 1990 with Jim Kavanaugh, who is now the company's co-founder and CEO. Steward serves as chairman of the board.
When was World Wide Technology founded?
World Wide Technology was incorporated in Missouri in July 1990 and began operating in St. Louis as a small technology reseller.
What did World Wide Technology originally sell?
WWT originally operated as a reseller of printers, computers, and telecommunications equipment. It later expanded into technology integration, infrastructure, cloud, cybersecurity, software, and other services.
How did David Steward get into the technology business?
Steward entered technology through his earlier transportation businesses. While working on a large Union Pacific billing project, he built a local-area network to process a massive volume of information. The experience helped him recognize how technology was changing business operations.
How much is World Wide Technology worth?
WWT is privately held, so it does not have a publicly traded market capitalization. Forbes currently describes it as a company with approximately $20 billion in annual sales.
What does World Wide Technology do today?
WWT provides technology products and services to enterprise, public-sector, and global service-provider customers. Its current capabilities include AI, cloud, cybersecurity, infrastructure, and technology integration. The company serves clients in up to 130 countries across six continents.
Conclusion
David Steward's path to building World Wide Technology did not begin in Silicon Valley or with a background in engineering. It began with sales, entrepreneurship, and a series of businesses that eventually showed him how technology could transform the way companies operated.
When WWT launched in 1990, it was a small reseller with limited resources. The company faced financial difficulties in its early years, but government contracts, private-sector growth, and an expanding technology market helped it develop beyond its original business model.
Over time, WWT moved from selling technology products to integrating complex technology environments and providing services around cloud, infrastructure, cybersecurity, software, and AI. Its Advanced Technology Center and AI investments reflect that continuing evolution.
Today, WWT remains privately held and operates globally, with more than 14,000 team members, more than 60 locations, and customers in up to 130 countries.
The story of David Steward and World Wide Technology is ultimately a story of adapting a business as technology changes, from a small St. Louis reseller in 1990 to a global technology solutions provider serving organizations across multiple industries and continents.
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