What happened to the four students who founded Facebook (Meta) 20 years ago with Mark Zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg is one of the most important technology entrepreneurs of the moment. We’re talking about the person behind Meta, the social media company that controls Facebook, Instagram, WhatsAppMeta Quest, Ray-Ban Meta and interesting concepts like the Orion augmented reality glasses. Zuckerberg, however, was not the only one to start this empire whose origins date back to the early 2000s.

It all started immediately after Harvard University blocked a program called Facemash that Zuckerberg had created in the second year of his studies. Facemash displayed two photos of people and users could vote on their attractiveness to feed a ranking algorithm. After that project he began to develop Facebook, a page to connect members of the university to which he belonged.

Those who created Facebook, 20 years later

Zuckerberg shared an early version of the site with his roommate Dustin Moskovitz, who helped him get new users. Later other students joined the project. Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, Andrew McCollum and Chris Hughes. Facebook expanded beyond Harvard University under the domain thefacebook.com and became a company whose first investment came in June 2004 from Peter Thiel.

In 2005, the company acquired facebook.com, a domain that continues to be used in the social network of the same name. The parent company changed its name in 2021 and was renamed Meta. But what happened to its founders? While Zuckerberg remains tied to the top leadership position and He has three daughters with his wife Priscilla Chanwhom he met during his student days, the rest of the founders followed different paths.

Dustin Moskovitzwho was studying economics, dropped out of university to dedicate himself fully to Facebook. He helped hire the company’s first employees and held important roles such as CTO and VP of engineering. In October 2008, when the social network was on its way to reaching 200 million unique visitorswhich meant doubling MySpace’s numbers, Moskovitz left Zuckerberg to co-found Asana.

According to ForbesMoskovitz became the world’s youngest billionaire in 2012. He is currently 40 years old and worth $15.5 billion. Together with his wife Cari Tuna, a businesswoman and former reporter for The Wall Street Journal, he founded the foundation Open Philanthropy. Even though his bank account has a multi-figure balance, Moskovitz continues to bike around San Francisco and travel on commercial flights.

Eduardo Saverin Together with Zuckerberg, he provided the initial capital so that Facebook could take off. First $1,000 and then $18,000. He stopped being involved with the company in 2005 after Zuckerberg allegedly diluted his stake, as portrayed in the movie ‘The Social Network’ and a Business Insider investigation. Saverin, who was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, renounced his US citizenship and moved to Singapore.

After his time at Facebook, the young man became a venture investor and supported startups such as the Qwiki application. He is currently 42 years old and lives like a celebrity. Not only is he the richest person in Singapore, but he often rides in luxury cars and visits exclusive clubs. His fortune has grown substantially in recent years. In 2022 it had a net worth of $10.6 billion. Now it is 28 billion dollars.

Andrew McCollum He was a classmate of Zuckerberg and designed Facebook’s first web interface. He left his studies to work at the social network, but in 2006 he left the company to return to Harvard, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science. Over time he became a venture investor and invested in more than twenty startups. He is 41 years old, He is the CEO of Philo, an on-demand content serviceand is married to Gretchen Sisson.

Chris Hughes He worked in the early days of Facebook, but decided to step away for a while to complete his undergraduate degree at Harvard. Once this goal was achieved, Hughes returned to the company and served as spokesperson for a time. In 2007 he joined Barack Obama’s campaign team and helped launch BarackObama.com. He later bought The New Republic. He is now 40 years old, married to Sean Eldridge and His assets reach 430 million dollars.

Images | Goal | Elaaine Chan and Priscilla Chan (CC BY 2.5) | CHINCT Conference (CC BY-SA 3.0)

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