The Facebook Effect I

In David Kirkpatrick’s The Facebook Effect facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg states, “We’re going to change the world.” (Kirkpatrick 43) And, with nearly 600 million users worldwide, it seems the social networking site already has changed the way people make “friends” and interact. In just 6 short years, Zuckerberg has transformed a Harvard dorm room novelty into an international phenomenon with no signs of slowing down. Readers of this book learn both the brilliance and the missteps of the world’s youngest billionaire. Zuckerberg and Sean Parker showed at the Sequoia capital offices in their pajamas to play a joke on the straight-laced venture capitalist firm. The young men made a fictitious business presentation having no intent on ever taking Sequoia’s investment. They did it merely to get back at the company for wronging Parker in his previous endeavor. “I assume we really offended them and now I feel really bad about that because they are serious people trying to do good stuff and we wasted their time. It’s not a story I’m very proud of” states the now maturing Zuckerberg (Kirkpatrick 105).

On Zuckerberg’s own Facebook page he has the following quote:

 "Make things as simple as possible but no simpler."- Albert Einstein

His business strategy for the growth of the social network seems to follow Mr. Einstein’s wise, but not easy plan. "Thefacebook had no content of its own. It was merely a piece of software-a platform for content created by its users."(Kirkpatrick 31)  Zuckerberg appears to run the company by following the desires of the folks on the site. In other words, it is “user generated.” And, as the author states "Their site was about people; Google was about data," (Kirkpatrick 54). Executives from the internet giant Google seemed to realize very early days of  Facebook that the site was a more than a fad and showed up at the rental house the initial team worked out of to see if Google could work with or maybe buy the young company. Zuckerberg, despite his youth and inexperience never considered selling his project. “Despite his baby face and general shyness, Zuckerberg was firmly and undisputedly in charge” readers are told (Kirkpatrick 51) 

"Their site was about people; Google was about data," (Kirkpatrick 54).

Sean Parker, who was an original founder of Napster played a “major-if controversial- character in the Facebook story (Kirkpatrick 46). Not only did Parker have a lot of internet experience, but he also had venture capital contacts. Zuckerberg and he met briefly at a dinner in New York and would soon live together in a rented house in Palo Alto. Shortly after moving into the house, Parker was the company president. This would lead to the first major investor in Facebook of $500,000 by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel. Thiel being an entrepreneur himself said, “I was comfortable with them pursuing their original vision” and in one of the greatest understatements of all time added, “I thought it was going to be a pretty safe investment” (Kirkpatrick 89).

The first section of Kirkpatrick’s book provides readers with a very open and interesting story of the journey this amazing young company and it’s brilliant CEO have endeavored upon to “change the world.” Investor Thiel gave the minimalist Zuckerberg some advice that Einstein would appreciated… “just don’t fuck it up” (Kirkpatrick 89). It seems the young billionaire took that wise advice to heart.