Sean Parker

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Sean Parker
Sean Parker 2011.jpg
Born (1979-12-03) December 3, 1979 (age 35)[1]
Herndon, Virginia
Education Oakton High School, Chantilly High School
Occupation Entrepreneur, investor
Known for Managing Partner at The Founders Fund
Co-founder of Plaxo, Napster, Airtime, and Causes
Founding President of Facebook
Net worth Increase US$ 3.1 billion (2014)[2]
Board member of
 Spotify
Yammer[3]
NationBuilder[4]
Spouse(s) Alexandra Lenas (m. 2013)
Children 1

Sean Parker (born December 3, 1979) is an American entrepreneur who cofounded the file-sharing computer service Napster and served as the first president of the social networking website Facebook. He also cofounded Plaxo, Causes, and Airtime.[5][6][7][8][9] As of September 2014, Parker's net worth was estimated to be US$3.1 billion.[2]

Early life[edit]

Parker was born in Herndon, Virginia, to Diane Parker, a TV advertising broker, and Bruce Parker, a U.S. government oceanographer.[5][6][10][11] When Parker was seven, his father taught him how to program on an Atari 800.[5] 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."[12] As a teenager, Parker’s hobbies were hacking and programming.[6] One night, while hacking into the network of a Fortune 500 company, Parker was unable to log out after his father unplugged and confiscated his computer keyboard.[6] Because his IP address was exposed, F.B.I. agents tracked down the 16-year-old.[6] Since Parker was under 18, he was sentenced to community service.[6]

Education[edit]

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.[13] 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.[13] As a result, towards the end of Parker’s senior year at Chantilly, he was mostly writing code and starting companies.[13] He graduated in 1998. While still in high school, he interned for Mark Pincus (the former CEO of Zynga) at Pincus's Washington D.C. startup FreeLoader.[14] He won the Virginia state computer science fair for developing a Web crawler, and was recruited by the C.I.A.[5] 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.[5]

As a child, Parker was an avid reader, which was the beginning of his lifelong autodidacticism.[6][15] Several media profiles refer to Parker as a genius.[16][17][18][19][20] 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.[21]

Ventures[edit]

Napster[edit]

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.[6][22] A few years later Fanning and Parker cofounded Napster, a free file-sharing service for music.[8] Parker raised the initial $50,000, and they launched Napster in June 1999.[23] Within a year, the service had tens of millions of users.[6] Napster was opposed by recording labels, the Recording Industry Association of America, and the heavy metal band Metallica,[11] among others. Lawsuits by various industry associations eventually shut down the service.[24][25] Napster has been called the fastest growing business of all time, is credited with revolutionizing the music industry, and is considered by some to be a precursor to iTunes.[26][27][28][29][30]

Plaxo[edit]

In November 2002, Parker subsequently launched Plaxo, an online address book and social networking service that integrated with Microsoft Outlook.[31] Plaxo was one of the first products to build virality into its launch, and that earned it 20 million users.[32][33] Plaxo was an early social networking tool, which would later influence the growth of companies like LinkedIn, Zynga and Facebook.[34] Two years after founding Plaxo, Parker was ousted by the company’s financiers, Sequoia Capital and Ram Shriram, in an acrimonious exit that reportedly involved the investors hiring private investigators to follow him.[35][36]

Facebook[edit]

In 2004 Parker saw a site called "The Facebook" on the computer of his roommate’s girlfriend, who was a student at Stanford.[6] Parker had experience in the social networking industry as an early advisor to Friendster and its founder, Jonathan Abrams, for which he was given a small amount of stock in 2003.[5][37] Parker met with Mark Zuckerberg and a few months later joined the five-month-old company as its founding president.[6][37] 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."[6]

As president, Parker brought on Thiel as Facebook’s first investor.[6] Within the initial round of funding, he negotiated for Zuckerberg to retain three of Facebook’s five board seats.[6] This gave Zuckerberg control of the company, allowing Facebook the freedom to remain a private company.[5] Additionally, Parker is said to have championed Facebook’s clean user interface and developed its photo-sharing function.[38][39] Zuckerberg notes that "Sean was pivotal in helping Facebook transform from a college project into a real company."[5]

During a party in 2005 police entered and searched a vacation home Parker was renting and found cocaine.[6] Parker was arrested on suspicion of possession but was not charged.[6] This event was subsequently used by Facebook investors to pressure Parker into resigning as company president.[40] Even after stepping down, Parker continued to remain involved with Facebook’s growth and met regularly with Zuckerberg.[41] The event was later dramatized in The Social Network.[42]

Spotify[edit]

While working at The Founders Fund, Parker had been looking to invest in a company that could progress Napster’s music sharing mission legally.[6] In 2009 a friend showed him Spotify, a Swedish streaming music service, and Parker sent an email to Spotify’s founder Daniel Ek.[43]

The pair traded emails, and in 2010 Parker invested US$15 million in Spotify.[44][45] Parker, who currently serves on Spotify’s board, negotiated with Warner and Universal, and in July 2011, Spotify announced its U.S. launch.[46] 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.[46][47]

Votizen[edit]

In 2010 Parker and The Founders Fund were a part of Votizen's $1.5 million funding round.[48] Parker now serves on the board of directors for Votizen and he believes "Politics for me is the most obvious area [to be disrupted by the Web]".[49]

Airtime[edit]

In 2011 Parker reunited with Napster cofounder Shawn Fanning to found Airtime.com. 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]

WillCall[edit]

In August 2013, Parker invested in mobile commerce company WillCall alongside European angel investor Oliver Jung—during that round, a total of US$2.1 million was raised. The company, co-founded by Donnie Dinch, aims to develop partnerships with live music venues to enable customers to organize and pay for their concerts with only the use of their mobile handset.[53]

Brigade Media[edit]

In April 2014, the public learned that Parker will serve as chairman and CEO of a new venture, Brigade Media, to "combat a lack of political engagement and interest in all levels of government across America".[54] The initial round of funding was $9.3 million from Parker, with additional sums from other investors.[55]

The People's Operator[edit]

In October 2014, Parker invested in The People's Operator, a mobile network provider that donates 25% of company profits to charitable causes.

The Founders Fund[edit]

In 2006 Parker became managing partner at the Founders Fund, a San Francisco-based venture capital fund founded by Peter Thiel.[56] Founders Fund is focused on investing in early-stage companies, has $500 million in aggregate capital, and has invested in Quantcast, Path, and Knewton.[57] Parker has carte blanche from Thiel when finding investments.[58] 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.[59][60]

Philanthropy, political donations and activism[edit]

Parker has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for many causes including cancer research, anti-malaria groups and the "charity: water" campaign.[61][62] He has spoken out in favor of higher taxes, particularly for the "wealthy and super wealthy," and in favor of higher capital gains taxes.[62] He has made substantial donations to both sides of U.S. party politics, initially favoring Democrats as well as progressive causes such as campaign finance reform and gun control. Subsequently, Parker has supported middle-of-the-road Republican candidates and super PACs, favoring "economically moderate" conservatives and candidates with a demonstrated interest in compromise and deal-making. In an interview from early 2014 he is quoted as favoring "elected officials who have shown themselves willing to work across the aisle" and, in Washington, he has met with Republican lawmakers about ways of encouraging economic investment in struggling areas of the country.[63] He has also supported cannabis law reform and in 2010, following the example of donations by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz (totaling $70,000) Parker donated $100,000 to the California Proposition 19 campaign to legalise marijuana in that state.[64]

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.[65][66] By 2010, 90 million people had joined Causes, donating a total of $27 million.[67][68] Originally one of the earliest Facebook applications, Causes is now at Causes.com and raises more than $20,000 a day for various charitable causes.[67]

In popular culture[edit]

Parker was portrayed by Justin Timberlake in the 2010 film The Social Network.[6] The movie is a fictionalized account of Facebook's founding and early days.[69][70][71] Timberlake was praised for his performance portraying Parker as a cocky opportunist.[5][42]

Although Parker praised David Fincher as a director, many have remarked on the differences between Parker and his portrayal by Timberlake.[5][6][72][73] Former Facebook growth chief Chamath Palihapitiya noted that Parker is "really the exact opposite of his portrayal in the film."[5] Parker took issue with the movie version of Eduardo Saverin's exit from Facebook (with whom Parker reportedly remains friends), as it ironically paralleled his own exit from Plaxo.[5] 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."[15][74]

In 2011 Parker was a guest on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, featured on the cover of the Forbes 400 issue, and was profiled in Vanity Fair.[6][75][76]

Personal life[edit]

In 2011, Parker became engaged to Alexandra Lenas, a singer-songwriter.[10][77] In January 2013, the couple had a daughter.[78] In September 2014, it was announced that Parker's wife is pregnant with their second child.[79] In December, 2014, Alexandra gave birth to their second child, a son, named Zephyr Emerson.[80]

Environmental Damage at Big Sur Wedding[edit]

On June 1, 2013, Parker married Alexandra Lenas in Big Sur, California, in a wedding at which every guest was given a Lord of the Rings style costume. The wedding purportedly cost 10 million dollars to stage.[81]

The wedding made national news after it was learned that extensive damage was done due to the unauthorized development of a campsite at the wedding site. Parker paid $2.5 million in penalties. Wrote Alex Madrigal of The Atlantic, "Nothing says, 'I love the Earth!' quite like bringing bulldozers into an old-growth forest to create a fake ruined castle. And to build this fantasy world on a spot that should have been open to regular old middle-class people: That makes it even better."[82][83][84] As part of his settlement with the California Coastal Commission, Parker was also required to create a beach-mapping app.[85]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Sean Parker biography". The Biography Channel. Retrieved April 6, 2014. 
  2. ^ a b "Sean Parker". Forbes. Retrieved September 3, 2014. 
  3. ^ "Yammer Board of Directors and Management". Yammer. 
  4. ^ "NationBuilder To Announce $6.25 Million In Silicon Valley Angel Funding". NationBuilder. 
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Bertoni, Steven. Sean Parker: Agent of Disruption. Forbes. September 21, 2011.
  6. ^ 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.
  7. ^ Tsukayama, Hayley. Sean Parker says online music is finally social. The Washington Post. July 14, 2011.
  8. ^ a b Adegoke, Yinka. Napster founders reunite with social video service. Reuters. June 5, 2012.
  9. ^ Vascellaro, Jessica E. (April 16, 2009). "Firm Lets Others Choose Start-Ups". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved May 18, 2009. 
  10. ^ a b Schuster, Dana. The Adventures of NYC's Billionaire Playboy. New York Post.[dead link]
  11. ^ a b Marshall, Matt (December 12, 2006). "Founders Fund hires Sean Parker as partner, to launch second fund". Venture Beat. Retrieved May 18, 2009. 
  12. ^ Gapper, John (2011-03-04). "Lunch with the FT: Sean Parker - FT.com - March 4, 2011 6:41 pm Gapper, John". FT.com. Retrieved 2013-08-02. 
  13. ^ a b c "Genius from Class '96". Retrieved February 20, 2011. 
  14. ^ Tsotsis, Alexia. Mark Pincus Used To Be Sean Parker’s Boss. TechCrunch. October 18, 2011.
  15. ^ a b DealBook (September 7, 2010). "The Strange Web Genius of Sean Parker". New York Times. Retrieved October 30, 2014. 
  16. ^ Estes, Adam Clark. The Overripe Fruits of Sean Parker's Labor on Twitter. The Atlantic. October 27, 2011.
  17. ^ Gastaldo, Evann. Meet Facebook 'Genius' Sean Parker. Newser. September 8, 2010.
  18. ^ 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."
  19. ^ 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.)"
  20. ^ 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."
  21. ^ 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."
  22. ^ Levy, Steven. The Noisy War Over Napster. The Daily Beast. June 4, 2000.
  23. ^ Rosoff, Matt. Sean Parker: Yes, My New Startup Is Called Airtime. Business Insider. October 17, 2011.
  24. ^ "Napster shut down". BBC News. July 27, 2000. Retrieved May 18, 2009. 
  25. ^ "Napster must stay shut down". BBC News. March 26, 2002. Retrieved May 18, 2009. 
  26. ^ Pruitt, Scarlett. Napster's Legacy Lives On. PC World. September 6, 2002.
  27. ^ Waters, Darren. Napster’s legacy lives on. BBC News.
  28. ^ Cooper, Charles. Perspective: Apple and the legacy of Napster. CNET. August 6, 2004.
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  31. ^ Jardin, Xeni (November 12, 2002). "Napster Co-Founder's New Venture". Wired. Retrieved May 18, 2009. 
  32. ^ Comcast to Buy Plaxo. Hot Hardware. May 25, 2008.
  33. ^ Kalyanam, Kirthi; Shelby McIntyre, J Todd Masonis (2007). Adaptive experimentation in interactive marketing: The case of viral marketing at Plaxo. Journal of Interactive Marketing.
  34. ^ 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.”
  35. ^ 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."
  36. ^ Kirkpatrick, David. The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World. Simon and Schuster, May 3, 2011. "Finally they booted him out. In the end they even hired a private investigator to document his alleged misbehavior.
  37. ^ a b Kirkpatrick, David (February 2010). The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4391-0211-4. 
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  42. ^ a b Marikar, Sheila. Justin Timberlake: From Boy Band Heartthrob to Modern Day Renaissance Man. ABC News. September 30, 2010.
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  47. ^ "Killers, Snoop Dogg, Jane's Addiction Rock Sean Parker's f8 Conference/Party". BillboardBiz. Billboard. 23 September 2011. Retrieved 28 June 2013. 
  48. ^ Kincaid, Jason. "Votizen Raises $1.5 Million To Make Sure Government Representatives Hear Your Voice". TechCrunch. 
  49. ^ Simonite, Tom. "Five Interesting Things Sean Parker Said Yesterday". MIT. 
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  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. ^ "WillCall Raises $1.2M From SV Angel And Sean Parker For Concert, Merch, And Drink Mobile Payments". TechCrunch. August 7, 2013. Retrieved December 16, 2013. 
  54. ^ "Napster co-founder Sean Parker to lead civic startup". Politico. April 14, 2014. Retrieved April 21, 2014. 
  55. ^ "Brigade Media Raises $9.3M From Sean Parker To Shake Up American Democracy". TechCrunch. April 14, 2014. Retrieved April 21, 2014. 
  56. ^ Blattberg, Eric. The Many Hats of Sean Parker. Wired. June 22, 2011.
  57. ^ Guynn, Jessica. Facebook backer now a rival to venture capitalists. The Los Angeles Times. December 18, 2007.
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  59. ^ Hoge, Patrick. Sean Parker hosts TechFellow awards. San Francisco Business Times. December 3, 2010
  60. ^ Arrington, Michael. Announcing The TechFellow Awards With Founders Fund. TechCrunch. April 16th, 2009.
  61. ^ Arrington, Michael. Venture Capitalists Ron Conway And Sean Parker Battle For Charity. TechCrunch. December 12, 2009.
  62. ^ a b Bowe, Rebecca. Sean Parker: "I am paying far too little in taxes". San Francisco Bay Guardian. October 26, 2011.
  63. ^ Burns, Alexander (15 July 2014). "Tech mogul Sean Parker ramps up GOP giving". Politico.com. POLITICO LLC. Retrieved 4 September 2014. 
  64. ^ MacAskill, Ewen (October 10, 2010). "Facebook cofounder gives $100,000 to push to legalise cannabis in California". The Guardian (UK). Retrieved October 11, 2010. 
  65. ^ MacMillan, Douglas. Philanthropy: Causes, the Socially Conscious Network. Bloomberg Business. October 21, 2010.
  66. ^ Causes Crunchbase Profile.
  67. ^ a b Kincaid, Jason. Causes Raises Another $9 Million To Help Spread Philanthropy Online TechCrunch.com. October 17, 2010.
  68. ^ Stone, Brad. Clicking for a Cause. The New York Times. November 11, 2009.
  69. ^ Gustin, Sam. The Social Network Nabs Eight Oscar Nods. Wired. January 25, 2011.
  70. ^ Albanesius, Chloe. Oscars: 'Social Network' Fizzles, Douglas and Bullock Light Up Twitter. PCWorld. February 28, 2011.
  71. ^ Dargis, Manhola. The Social Network (2010). The New York Times.
  72. ^ Sean Parker: The Social Network is a complete work of fiction. The Next Web. January 23, 2011.
  73. ^ What's True in the Facebook Movie. The Daily Beast. September 30, 2010.
  74. ^ White, Charlie. Sean Parker Says "The Social Network" Is "Fiction". Mashable. January 23, 2011.
  75. ^ Cavin, Cory. Sean Parker Talks Spotify, Hacking, And Being On The Cover Of Forbes. Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. October 4, 2011.
  76. ^ Sean Parker: Human Accelerant. Forbes. October 18, 2011.
  77. ^ "Sean Parker, Facebook Billionaire, Welcomes Baby Girl With Fiancee Alexandra Lenas". Us Weekly. January 5, 2013. Retrieved September 27, 2013. 
  78. ^ "Sean Parker, Facebook Billionaire, Welcomes Baby Girl With Fiancee Alexandra Lenas", Us Weekly, January 7, 2013.
  79. ^ "Baby Boy on the Way for Sean Parker". People. September 15, 2014. Retrieved October 1, 2014. 
  80. ^ http://celebritybabies.people.com/2014/12/03/sean-parker-alexandra-parker-welcome-son-zephyr-emerson/
  81. ^ Galla, Brittany (June 1, 2013). "Sean Parker Is Married! Facebook Billionaire Weds Alexandra Lenas". Us Weekly. Retrieved June 2, 2013. 
  82. ^ Madrigal, Alexis (June 4, 2013). "New Government Documents Show the Sean Parker Wedding Is the Perfect Parable for Silicon Valley Excess". The Atlantic. Retrieved June 4, 2013. 
  83. ^ "New Government Documents Show the Sean Parker Wedding Is the Perfect Parable for Silicon Valley Excess", The Atlantic, ALEXIS C. MADRIGAL, JUN 6 2013
  84. ^ Steve Kovach (28 June 2013). "Sean Parker Wrote a 9,500 Word defence Of His Outlandish $10 Million Wedding". Business Insider Australia. Allure Media. Retrieved 28 June 2013. 
  85. ^ Alexander, Kurtis (October 17, 2014) "Sean Parker’s Big Sur punishment — create an app." San Francisco Chronicle. (Retrieved 10-17-2014.)

External links[edit]

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