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Sean Parker

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Sean Parker
Born1979
EducationOakton High School, Chantilly High School
Occupations

Sean Parker (born 1979) is an American Internet technology businessman and entrepreneur. He co-founded Napster, Plaxo, Causes, and Airtime, and was Facebook's founding president.[2][3][4][5] His net worth is estimated at $2.1 billion.[6]

Early life

Parker was born in Virginia to Diane Parker, a TV advertising broker, and Bruce Parker, a U.S. government oceanographer.[3][7][2] When Parker was 7, his father taught him how to program on an Atari 800.[2] Parker’s father, who put his family over his entrepreneurial dreams, told Parker "if you are going to take risks, take them early before you have a family."[8]

As a teenager, Parker’s hobbies were hacking and programming.[3] One night, while hacking into the network of a Fortune 500 company, Parker was unable to logout after his frustrated father unplugged his computer.[3] Because his IP address was exposed, F.B.I. agents tracked down the 16-year-old, showed up at his doorstep and seized his computer.[3] Since Parker was a minor, he was only sentenced to community service.[3]

Education

Parker attended Oakton High School in Fairfax County, Virginia for two years before transferring to Chantilly High School in 1996 for his junior and senior years.[9] While there, Parker wrote a letter to the school administration and persuaded them to count the time he spent coding in the computer lab as a foreign language class.[9] As a result, towards the end of Parker’s senior year at Chantilly, he was mostly writing code and starting companies.[9] He graduated in 1998. While still in high school, he interned for Mark Pincus (the current CEO of Zynga) at Pincus's Washington D.C. startup FreeLoader.[10] He won the Virginia state computer science fair for developing a Web crawler, and was recruited by the C.I.A..[2] By his senior year of high school, Parker was earning more than $80,000 a year through various projects, enough to convince his parents to allow him to skip college and pursue a career as an entrepreneur.[2]

As a child, Parker was an avid reader, which was the beginning of his lifelong autodidactism.[3][11] Despite his lack of formal education, Parker is considered a "genius."[12][13][14][15][16] He considers his time at Napster to be his college education, calling it "Napster University," since he became well-versed in ­intellectual property law, corporate ­finance, and entrepreneurship.[17]

Ventures

Napster

When Parker was 15, he met 14 year-old Shawn Fanning over the internet, where the two bonded over topics like theoretical physics and hacking.[3][18] A few years later, Fanning and Parker co-founded Napster, a free file-sharing service for music.[19][20][21][22][23][24][25] Parker raised the intial $50,000, and they launched Napster in June 1999.[26] Within a year, the service had tens of millions of users.[3] Napster was opposed by recording labels, the Recording Industry Association of America, and the heavy metal band Metallica.[27] Lawsuits by various industry associations eventually shut down the service.[28][29][25] Napster has been called the fastest growing business of all time, is credited with revolutionizing the music industry and served as a precursor to iTunes.[30][31][32][33][34]

Plaxo

In November 2002, Parker subsequently launched Plaxo, an online address book and social networking service that integrated with Microsoft Outlook.[35] Plaxo was one of the first products to build virality into its launch, and that earned it 20 million users.[36][37] Plaxo was an early social networking tool, which would later influence the growth of companies like LinkedIn, Zynga and Facebook.[38] Two years after founding Plaxo, Parker was ousted by the company’s financiers, Sequoia Capital and Ram Shriram, over unspecified reasons which Plaxo reportedly hired private investigators to acquire.[39]

Facebook

In 2004, Parker saw a site called "Thefacebook" on the computer of his roommate’s girlfriend, who was a student at Stanford.[3] Parker had experience in the social networking space as an early advisor to Friendster and its founder Jonathan Abrams, for which he was given a small amount of stock in 2003."[2][40] Parker met with Mark Zuckerberg, and a few months later, joined the five month old company as its founding president.[3][40] According to Peter Thiel, Facebook’s first investor, Sean Parker was the first to see potential in the company to be "really big," and that "if Mark ever had any second thoughts, Sean was the one who cut that off."[3]

As president, Parker brought on Thiel as Facebook’s first investor.[3] Within the initial round of funding, he negotiated for Zuckerberg to retain three of Facebook’s five board seats.[3] This gave Zuckerberg control of the company, allowing Facebook the freedom to remain a private company.[2] Additionally, Parker is said to have championed Facebook’s clean user interface and developed its photo-sharing function.[41][42] Zuckerberg notes that "Sean was pivotal in helping Facebook transform from a college project into a real company."[2]

During a party in 2005, police entered and searched a vacation home Parker was renting and found cocaine.[3] Parker was arrested on suspicion of possession but not charged.[3] This event was subsequently used by Facebook investors to pressure Parker into resigning as company president.[43] However, he continued to remain involved with Facebook’s growth and regularly meets with Zuckerberg.[44] The event was later dramatized in The Social Network.[45]

Spotify

While working at The Founders Fund, Parker had been looking to invest in a company that could progress Napster’s mission of sharing music in a way that gave royalties to the musicians.[3] In 2009, a friend showed him Spotify, a European streaming music service and Parker sent an email to Daniel Ek, Spotify’s founder.[46]

The pair traded emails, and in 2010, Parker invested $15 million in Spotify.[47][48] Parker, who currently serves on Spotify’s board, negotiated with Warner and Universal, and in July 2011, Spotify announced its U.S. launch.[24] At Facebook’s f8 conference, Parker announced a partnership between Facebook and Spotify, which allowed users to share their Spotify playlists on their Facebook profiles.[24][49]

Airtime

In 2011, Parker reunited with Napster co-founder Shawn Fanning to found Airtime. Some of the investors are Ron Conway, Michael Arrington, and Ashton Kutcher.[50][51] Parker will serve as executive chairman and Fanning as CEO.[52]

The Founders Fund

In 2006, Parker became managing partner at the Founders Fund, a San Francisco based venture capital fund founded by Peter Thiel.[53] Founders Fund is focused on investing in early-stage companies, has $500 million in aggregate capital, and has invested in Quantcast, Path, and Knewton.[54] Parker has carte blanche from Thiel when finding investments.[55] Parker also hosts The TechFellow Awards, a partnership between TechCrunch and The Founders Fund that annually gives 20 entrepreneurs $100,000 each to invest in startups.[56][57]

Philanthropy

Parker is an active philanthropist, and has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for cancer research, anti-malaria groups, charity: water, and marijuana legalization.[58][59][60] He has spoken out in favor of higher taxes, particularly for the "wealthy and super wealthy," and in favor of higher capital gains taxes.[60]

Parker is the founder of Causes, a philanthropic service that uses social media to connect charities with their supporters and potential donors and then communicates that connection to the user's network of friends.[61][62] By 2010, 90 million people had joined Causes, donating a total of $27 million.[63][64] Originally one of the earliest Facebook applications, Causes now lives at Causes.com and raises more than $20,000 a day for various charitable causes.[63]

Parker was portrayed by Justin Timberlake in the 2010 Oscar-winning film, The Social Network.[3] The movie is a fictionalized account of Facebook's founding and early days, in which Parker's character serves as the film's antagonist.[65][66][67] Timberlake was lauded for his performance, which portrayed Parker as a cruel, cocky opportunist.[2][45]

Although Parker praised David Fincher as a director, many have remarked on the differences between Parker and his portrayal by Timberlake.[3][2][68][69] Former Facebook growth chief Chamath Palihapitiya noted that Parker is "really the exact opposite of his portrayal in the film."[2] In particular, Parker took issue with the movie version of Eduardo Saverin's exit from Facebook (who Parker remains friends with), as it ironically paralleled his own exit from Plaxo.[2] Parker called the character a "morally reprehensible human being," although he noted that "it's hard to complain about being played by a sex symbol."[11][70]

In 2011, Parker was a guest on Jimmy Fallon, featured on the cover of the Forbes 400 issue, and was profiled in Vanity Fair.[3][71][72]

Personal life

Parker is primarily based in New York City although he frequently travels to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Stockholm, and London for Spotify, Airtime, and the Founders Fund.[2] His $20 million townhouse in Manhattan includes an indoor pool, 30-foot bamboo trees, and an entrance hall adorned with actual subway cars.[73][8][74] He is engaged to Alexandra Lenas, a singer-songwriter.[75]

References

  1. ^ "Sean Parker". Forbes. September 2011. Retrieved November 3, 2011.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Bertoni, Steven. Sean Parker: Agent of Disruption. Forbes. September 21, 2011.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Kirkpatrick, David. With a Little Help From His Friends. Vanity Fair. October 2010.
  4. ^ Tsukayama, Hayley. Sean Parker says online music is finally social. The Washington Post. July 14, 2011.
  5. ^ Vascellaro, Jessica E. (April 16, 2009). "Firm Lets Others Choose Start-Ups". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved May 18, 2009.
  6. ^ Forbes 400 Richest Americans: Sean Parker. Forbes. September 2011.
  7. ^ Marshall, Matt (December 12, 2006). "Founders Fund hires Sean Parker as partner, to launch second fund". Venture Beat. Retrieved May 18, 2009.
  8. ^ a b Gapper, John. Lunch With Sean Parker. Slate. March 6, 2011.
  9. ^ a b c "Genius from Class '96". Retrieved February 20, 2011.
  10. ^ Tsotsis, Alexia. Mark Pincus Used To Be Sean Parker’s Boss. TechCrunch. October 18, 2011.
  11. ^ a b DealBook (Sept 7, 2010). "The Strange Web Genius of Sean Parker". New York Times. Retrieved 11/01/2011. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  12. ^ Estes, Adam Clark. The Overripe Fruits of Sean Parker's Labor on Twitter. The Atlantic. October 27, 2011.
  13. ^ Gastaldo, Evann. Meet Facebook 'Genius' Sean Parker. Newser. September 8, 2010.
  14. ^ Bertoni, Steven. Sean Parker: Agent of Disruption. Forbes. September 21, 2011. "Question the audiophile about the best brand of headphones and you first learn how sound waves are registered by our tympanic membranes."
  15. ^ Kirkpatrick, David (October 2010). "With a Little Help From His Friends". Vanity Fair. Retrieved July 1, 2011. "There is hardly a topic—literary, political, medical, or technological—about which he cannot offer an informed and nuanced opinion in his rapid-fire patter. (Don’t get him started on Ben Franklin’s role as a media pioneer.)"
  16. ^ Kirkpatrick, David (October 2010). "With a Little Help From His Friends". Vanity Fair. Retrieved July 1, 2011. "He's always talking about the potential of computers to generate algorithms for likable melodies, and we have this ongoing argument: he believes it’s only a matter of time before computers will be able to create listenable tunes."
  17. ^ Bertoni, Steven. Sean Parker: Agent of Disruption. Forbes. September 21, 2011. "I kind of refer to it as Napster University—it was a crash course in ­intellectual property law, corporate ­finance, entrepreneurship and law school. Some of the e-mails I wrote when I was just a kid who didn’t know what he was doing are apparently in [law school] textbooks."
  18. ^ Levy, Steven. The Noisy War Over Napster. The Daily Beast. June 4, 2000.
  19. ^ Pollack, Neal. Spotify Is the Coolest Music Service You Can't Use. Wired. December 27, 2010.
  20. ^ Schonfeld, Erick. Shawn Fanning And Sean Parker Talk About Airtime And “Smashing People Together”. TechCrunch. October 6, 2011.
  21. ^ Rosen, Ellen. Student's Start-Up Draws Attention and $13 Million. The New York Times. May 26, 2005.
  22. ^ Bradshaw, Tim. Spotify-MOG battle heats up. Financial Times. February 28, 2010.
  23. ^ Emerson, Ramona. Sean Parker At Web 2.0 Summit Defends 'Creepy' Facebook. The Huffington Post. October 18, 2011.
  24. ^ a b c Simon, Dan. Internet pioneer Sean Parker: 'I'm blazing a new path'. CNN. September 27, 2011. Cite error: The named reference "cnnblazing" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  25. ^ a b Menn, Joseph (2003). All the Rave: The Rise and Fall of Shawn Fanning’s Napster. Crown Business. ISBN 0-609-61093-7. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |coauthors= and |month= (help)
  26. ^ Rosoff, Matt. Sean Parker: Yes, My New Startup Is Called Airtime. Business Insider. October 17, 2011.
  27. ^ Marshall, Matt (December 12, 2006). "Founders Fund hires Sean Parker as partner, to launch second fund". Venture Beat. Retrieved May 18, 2009.
  28. ^ "Napster shut down". BBC News. July 27, 2000. Retrieved May 18, 2009.
  29. ^ "Napster must stay shut down". BBC News. March 26, 2002. Retrieved May 18, 2009.
  30. ^ Pruitt, Scarlett. Napster's Legacy Lives On. PC World. September 6, 2002.
  31. ^ Waters, Darren. Napster’s legacy lives on. BBC News.
  32. ^ Cooper, Charles. Perspective: Apple and the legacy of Napster. CNET. August 6, 2004.
  33. ^ Napster’s Rise and Fall--And Its Future. Forbes. May 28, 2003.
  34. ^ Konrad, Rachel. Napster among fastest-growing Net technologies. CNET. October 5, 2000.
  35. ^ Jardin, Xeni (November 12, 2002). "Napster Co-Founder's New Venture". Wired. Retrieved May 18, 2009.
  36. ^ Comcast to Buy Plaxo. Hot Hardware. May 25, 2008.
  37. ^ Kalyanam, Kirthi; Shelby McIntyre, J Todd Masonis (2007). Adaptive experimentation in interactive marketing: The case of viral marketing at Plaxo. Journal of Interactive Marketing.
  38. ^ Bertoni, Steven. Sean Parker: Agent of Disruption. Forbes. September 21, 2011. “It sounds boring compared to Napster and Facebook, but Plaxo was an early social networking tool and a pioneer of the types of viral tricks that helped grow LinkedIn, Zynga and Facebook. “Plaxo is like the indie band that the public doesn’t know but was really influential with other musicians,” Parker says.”
  39. ^ Marshall, Matt (December 12, 2006). "Founders Fund hires Sean Parker as partner, to launch second fund". Venture Beat. Retrieved May 18, 2009. "During the post-bubble downturn, Parker got pushed out by Sequoia Capital and Ram Shriram, and there’s been silence over the real reasons ever since. There were reports of private investigators going after Parker... “Sequoia had no chance to invest,” Thiel explains, “because of the way they mistreated him at Plaxo. He’s been treated worse than he deserved."
  40. ^ a b Kirkpatrick, David (2010). The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4391-0211-4. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  41. ^ Bertoni, Steven. Sean Parker: Agent of Disruption. Forbes. September 21, 2011. "Facebook’s key architect, Parker helped drive Facebook’s minimalist look. He was adamant that the site have a continuous flow and tasks like adding friends be as frictionless as possible."
  42. ^ Sean Parker: Managing Partner, Founders Fund. Web 2.0 Summit.
  43. ^ Eaton, Kit. Why You Should Care About Sean Parker: The Man Behind Napster, Facebook, and Chatroulette. Fast Company. September 8, 2010.
  44. ^ Kirkpatrick, David (October 2010). "With a Little Help From His Friends". Vanity Fair. Retrieved July 1, 2011. "I don’t think Sean ever really left Facebook," says board member Thiel. "He’s continued to be involved in many ways."
  45. ^ a b Marikar, Sheila. Justin Timberlake: From Boy Band Heartthrob to Modern Day Renaissance Man. ABC News. September 30, 2010.
  46. ^ Sawers, Paul. You have to see this email from Sean Parker in 2009 pitching his interest in Spotify. The Next Web. October 7, 2011.
  47. ^ Levy, Stephen. Steven Levy on Facebook, Spotify and the Future of Music. Wired. October 21, 2011.
  48. ^ Sean Parker: War on Music Piracy is a Failure. CBS News. October 22, 2010.
  49. ^ Downs, David. Killers, Snoop Dogg, Jane's Addiction Rock Sean Parker's f8 Conference/Party. Billboard. September 23, 2011.
  50. ^ Bertoni, Steven. Sean Parker And Shawn Fanning's Secretive Airtime Gets Big Backers. Forbes. October 6, 2011.
  51. ^ Apostolou, Natalie. Napster boys are back with Airtime. The A Register. October 10, 2011.
  52. ^ Napster founders return with Airtime start-up. BBC News. October 10, 2011.
  53. ^ Blattberg, Eric. The Many Hats of Sean Parker. Wired. June 22, 2011.
  54. ^ Guynn, Jessica. Facebook backer now a rival to venture capitalists. The Los Angeles Times. December 18, 2007.
  55. ^ Marshall, Matt (December 12, 2006). "Founders Fund hires Sean Parker as partner, to launch second fund". Venture Beat. Retrieved May 18, 2009. “At Founders Fund, Thiel is focused on investing in early-stage companies, and he’s given Parker a carte blanche to find the best companies he can, Thiel says.”
  56. ^ Hoge, Patrick. Sean Parker hosts TechFellow awards. San Francisco Business Times. December 3, 2010
  57. ^ Arrington, Michael. Announcing The TechFellow Awards With Founders Fund. TechCrunch. April 16th, 2009.
  58. ^ MacAskill, Ewen (October 10, 2010). "Facebook co-founder gives $100,000 to push to legalise cannabis in California". The Guardian. UK. Retrieved October 11, 2010.
  59. ^ Arrington, Michael. Venture Capitalists Ron Conway And Sean Parker Battle For Charity. TechCrunch. December 12, 2009.
  60. ^ a b Bowe, Rebecca. Sean Parker: "I am paying far too little in taxes". San Francisco Bay Guardian. October 26, 2011.
  61. ^ MacMillan, Douglas. Philanthropy: Causes, the Socially Conscious Network. Bloomberg Business. October 21, 2010.
  62. ^ Causes Crunchbase Profile.
  63. ^ a b Kincaid, Jason Causes Raises Another $9 Million To Help Spread Philanthropy Online TechCrunch.com. October 17th, 2010.
  64. ^ Stone, Brad. Clicking for a Cause. The New York Times. November 11, 2009.
  65. ^ Gustin, Sam. The Social Network Nabs Eight Oscar Nods. Wired. January 25, 2011.
  66. ^ Albanesius, Chloe. Oscars: 'Social Network' Fizzles, Douglas and Bullock Light Up Twitter. PCWorld. February 28, 2011.
  67. ^ Dargis, Manhola. The Social Network (2010). The New York Times.
  68. ^ Sean Parker: The Social Network is a complete work of fiction. The Next Web. January 23, 2011.
  69. ^ What's True in the Facebook Movie. The Daily Beast. September 30, 2010.
  70. ^ White, Charlie. Sean Parker Says "The Social Network" Is "Fiction". Mashable. January 23, 2011.
  71. ^ Cavin, Cory. Sean Parker Talks Spotify, Hacking, And Being On The Cover Of Forbes. Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. October 4, 2011.
  72. ^ Sean Parker: Human Accelerant. Forbes. October 18, 2011.
  73. ^ Gould Keil, Jennifer. Facebook ex-prez's $20M pad. New York Post. January 25, 2011.
  74. ^ Arak, Joey. Facebook Co-founder Sean Parker's $20 Million Mansion Has Subway Sound Effects. Curbed. March 7, 2011.
  75. ^ The unknown singer whose ship just came in: Facebook billionaire Sean Parker proposes to Alexandra Lenas. Daily Mail Reporter. April 5, 2011.
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