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1-Page Summary of The Accidental Billionaires

Overview

The Accidental Billionaires is the story of how Facebook was created. It’s about a young computer whiz kid named Mark Zuckerberg and his friend Eduardo Saverin, who met at Harvard. This book talks about their friendship and how they came up with ideas together to create Facebook, which would eventually become one of the biggest social networking sites in history.

Mark Zuckerberg thought about creating a social networking site before he created Facebook. Many other students at Harvard had the same idea, but they didn’t think of it as well or execute it as effectively as he did. He got into trouble for hacking into Harvard’s computer system and using their bandwidth to create Facemash.com, a website that compares two people and asks users to vote on who is better looking. Before launching his site, he wanted to feature photos of girls against farm animals in an offensive contest that would have offended many women and animal rights groups around the world, but decided not to because of concerns from his friends and family members.

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, along with Divya Narendra, recruited Mark Zuckerberg to work on a social networking site. They thought he had agreed to help them build the Harvard Connection, but later found out that he was developing Thefacebook instead. Zuckerberg claimed there was no agreement between him and the three students; however, they accused him of stealing their idea for his own benefit.

As Facebook began to grow, it was obvious that the funding from Saverin could not keep up with expenses. So Sean Parker joined them and introduced Zuckerberg to investors who saw dollar signs in their eyes when they realized how fast Facebook was growing.

After Zuckerberg left Harvard, he moved to the San Francisco area and teamed up with Sean Parker. Thiel invested $500,000 in Facebook just so it could stay alive. By its fourteenth month of operation, Facebook had millions of members and was worth over $100 million. When Parker got arrested at a party, Zuckerberg fired him as President of Facebook because he didn’t want anything bad happening to it.

Mark Zuckerberg had a dispute with the Connect U team and Eduardo Saverin. The twins received $65 million but they wanted more money from Zuckerberg. Saverin’s settlement was not publicized, but he returned to Facebook as an investor. By 2009, Facebook had over 200 million members. No one knows what Mark Zuckerberg is worth now, but it is accepted as fact that he is the youngest self-made billionaire ever.

Chapters 1 and 2

Chapter 1: Eduardo Saverin was a guest at the Phoenix-S K fraternity party in October 2003. He was identified as a senior and introduced himself to Darron, who recognized his last name. His brother had invested money with him, which earned them $300,000. They bet against oil futures and made money on that investment. Eduardo hoped to be accepted into the Phoenix club so he could use it for future opportunities.

Eduardo noticed an awkward looking geeky young man who remained remote from the group most of the evening. The kid was a mop-haired duck out of water, but he did have social networking skills and would eventually change Eduardo’s life as a result.

Mark Zuckerberg, a sophomore at Harvard, was invited to the Epsilon Pi fraternity party. He stood out because of his awkwardness and reputation as a computer genius. Mark had created an online version of Risk and a program that allowed students to find out what courses were being offered by other students. Apparently Microsoft had offered seventeen-year-old Mark over one million dollars to work for them—an offer he reportedly turned down. Eduardo wanted to get closer with Mark because he was intrigued by him and wanted to learn more about how he thought and his ideas.