David "Axel" Neff is an American businessman, best known for his role as the former of the Russian social network Vkontakte and as a co-founder of mobile messaging platform , used to create the instant messaging application Telegram Messenger. Neff was a co-founder of the US based Telegram LLC, which was responsible for the creation of Telegram Messenger. He served as the head of subsidiaries for both companies, Durov LLC and Digital Fortress LLC respectively. Neff was also the director of Pictograph LLC and Telegram LLC.