Everyone knows the name Mark Zuckerberg. You’ve seen the movie, you’ve seen the congressional hearings, and you’ve probably seen the memes about his love for barbecue sauce. But the story of the founder and cofounder of Facebook is way messier than a two-hour Hollywood script suggests.
It wasn't just one guy in a hoodie.
It was a volatile mix of five college kids, a few thousand dollars in seed money, and a series of "dirty tricks" that turned best friends into legal enemies. If you think the story ends with the 2010 movie The Social Network, you’re missing the most interesting parts. Honestly, the reality of how these five guys built, fought over, and eventually left the world’s biggest social network is a masterclass in how not to do business with your roommates.
The Original Five: Who Were They?
In February 2004, the "TheFacebook" masthead didn't just have one name. It listed a team. Mark Zuckerberg was the primary developer, but he needed a crew to handle the stuff he didn't want to do—like talking to humans or designing logos.
- Mark Zuckerberg: The "Master and Commander" (his actual self-given title back then).
- Eduardo Saverin: The first CFO. He provided the initial $1,000 to get the servers running.
- Dustin Moskovitz: The workhorse. He learned Perl in a couple of days just to help Mark code the expansion to other schools.
- Andrew McCollum: The artist. He’s the guy who designed the original "binary face" logo that featured a pixelated Al Pacino.
- Chris Hughes: The "Empath." He wasn't a coder; he was the guy who figured out how the site should actually feel for a regular person.
The Eduardo Saverin Fallout (It Was Worse Than the Movie)
The most famous drama involves Eduardo Saverin. People often think he was just a victim of a mean prank. Kinda, but it was more of a cold-blooded corporate execution.
Zuckerberg and Saverin started as equals, each putting up a grand. But as the site exploded, the tension grew. Mark moved to California to grind; Eduardo stayed in New York to intern at Lehman Brothers and try to sell ads.
The breaking point?
🔗 Read more: iPhone 15 size in inches: What Apple’s Specs Don't Tell You About the Feel
Zuckerberg felt Saverin was dead weight. To get rid of him, Zuckerberg didn't just fire him. He incorporated a new company in Delaware, had that new company buy the old Florida-based Facebook, and then redistributed the shares. Everyone got their piece of the new pie—except Eduardo. His stake was diluted from roughly 34% down to a measly 0.03%.
He sued, obviously.
They settled out of court, and while the exact number is a secret, Saverin walked away with enough to eventually become one of the wealthiest people in Singapore. He’s doing fine. But that bridge is burned to ash.
Why Dustin Moskovitz Was the Secret Weapon
If Mark was the vision, Dustin was the engine. He was the first founder and cofounder of Facebook to follow Mark to Palo Alto. They lived in a house where the "office" was basically a dining room table covered in empty Red Bull cans.
Moskovitz was a "marathon coder." He worked 20-hour shifts to make sure the site didn't crash every time a new university joined. Even though he was the CTO, he eventually got burnt out by the corporate politics. He left in 2008 to start Asana.
Think about that.
💡 You might also like: Finding Your Way to the Apple Store Freehold Mall Freehold NJ: Tips From a Local
He left a multibillion-dollar rocket ship because he wanted to solve a different problem: why is it so hard for teams to track their work? Today, he's a billionaire many times over and one of the biggest donors to "Effective Altruism."
The Quiet Ones: Chris Hughes and Andrew McCollum
Chris Hughes is the guy you’ve probably heard the least about, yet he had a massive impact. He was the one who suggested features like the "Poke" (which Mark famously said had no actual purpose) and helped shape the site’s early philosophy.
He left in 2007. Why? To run the digital campaign for a guy named Barack Obama.
That worked out pretty well for him.
Then there’s Andrew McCollum. He was the only one who really stayed under the radar. He worked on a side project called Wirehog—a file-sharing service Zuckerberg wanted to bake into Facebook—but it was eventually killed off due to piracy fears. McCollum left in 2007, went back to Harvard, and eventually became the CEO of Philo, the streaming service.
What Most People Get Wrong About the Founding
There’s this myth that Facebook was a "theft" of the Winklevoss twins' idea. While the legal battle was real and resulted in a $65 million settlement, the truth is more nuanced. The Winklevosses wanted a dating site for elites. Zuckerberg wanted a directory for everyone.
📖 Related: Why the Amazon Kindle HDX Fire Still Has a Cult Following Today
The "theft" wasn't necessarily the idea of a social network; those were everywhere in 2004 (MySpace, Friendster). The "theft" was the momentum. Zuckerberg used his position as their developer to stall their project while he finished his own.
It was ruthless. But in the tech world of the early 2000s, it was also how things worked.
Where They Are in 2026
- Mark Zuckerberg: Still at the helm of Meta, pivoting between the Metaverse and AI.
- Eduardo Saverin: Venture capitalist in Asia.
- Dustin Moskovitz: Still running Asana, though he recently announced plans to transition to Chairman.
- Chris Hughes: An author and activist pushing for universal basic income.
- Andrew McCollum: Still leading Philo and investing in startups.
Actionable Takeaways for Founders
If you're looking at the history of the founder and cofounder of Facebook as a blueprint, here is what you should actually learn:
- Vesting is Not Optional: The Saverin mess happened because they didn't have a clear "vesting" schedule. If a founder stops working, their equity should stop growing. Simple as that.
- Product Over Graphics: Andrew McCollum’s first logo was objectively weird (a blue Al Pacino?). It didn't matter. The utility of the site was so high that people didn't care about the branding.
- The "Move Fast" Cost: Zuckerberg’s "Move Fast and Break Things" mantra applied to people, too. If you’re going to be a founder, realize that the friends you start with might not be the executives you finish with.
The story of Facebook’s founding is essentially a tragedy about friendship and a triumph of engineering. It’s a reminder that billion-dollar companies are rarely built by "lone geniuses"—they’re built by teams that eventually blow apart under the pressure of their own success.
To better understand how these early decisions shape a company's future, you might want to look into the "Delaware Flip," the specific legal move Zuckerberg used to dilute Saverin's shares, which remains a cautionary tale in every law school in the country.