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

Mark Zuckerberg is one of the most prominent technology entrepreneurs of our time. We’re talking about the man behind Meta, the social network that controls Facebook, Instagram, WhatsAppMeta Quest, Ray-Ban Meta and interesting concepts like Orion augmented reality glasses. Zuckerberg, however, was not the only one who founded this empire, which dates back to the early 2000s.

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

The Creators of Facebook, 20 Years Later

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

In 2005, the company acquired facebook.com, a domain that is still used on 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 has three daughters with his wife Priscilla Chan, whom he met while studying, the other founders have taken different paths.

Dustin Moskowitzstudied economics, dropped out of university to devote himself full-time to Facebook. He helped hire the company’s first employees and held key positions such as CTO and VP of Engineering. In October 2008, with the social network on track to reach 200 million unique visitors, doubling MySpace’s numbers, Moskowitz left Zuckerberg to co-found Asana.

According to Forbes, Moskowitz became the world’s youngest billionaire in 2012. He is now 40 years old and has a net worth of $15.5 billion. He founded the Open Philanthropy Foundation with his wife, Carey Tuna, a businesswoman and former reporter for The Wall Street Journal. Even though his bank account has a multi-digit balance, Moskowitz continues to ride his bike around San Francisco and travel on commercial flights.

Eduardo Saverin Along with Zuckerberg, he provided the seed capital to help Facebook take off. First $1,000, then $18,000. His ties to the company ended in 2005 after Zuckerberg allegedly diluted his stake, as depicted in the movie “The Social Network” and a Business Insider investigation. Saverin, born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, renounced his U.S. citizenship and moved to Singapore.

After working at Facebook, the young man became a venture investor and supported startups such as the Qwiki application. Now 42 years old, he lives like a celebrity. Not only is he Singapore’s richest man, but he also frequently drives luxury cars and frequents exclusive clubs. His fortune has grown significantly in recent years. In 2022, his net worth was $10.6 billion. Now it’s 28 billion dollars.

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

Chris Hughes He worked in the early days of Facebook, but decided to leave for a while to get his bachelor’s degree at Harvard. Once this goal was achieved, Hughes returned to the company and worked for a time as its representative. 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 has a net worth of $430 million.

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

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