Everyone knows the name Mark Zuckerberg. He's the face of the hoodie-wearing billionaire archetype. But if you've seen the movies or read the old blog posts from the early 2000s, you know the story of the founder and co founder of facebook is way messier than a simple "boy genius builds app" narrative. It wasn't just Mark. It was a group of roommates, a handful of lawsuits, and some seriously hurt feelings.
Honestly, the "founding" of Facebook wasn't a single lightbulb moment. It was a series of pivots.
The Original Five: Who Were They?
Most people can't name all five. You have Mark Zuckerberg, obviously. Then there’s Eduardo Saverin, the business guy who ended up suing him. Dustin Moskovitz was the workhorse coder who lived on Red Bull. Chris Hughes handled the "softer" side like PR and user experience. Finally, there was Andrew McCollum, the guy who actually designed the first logo—the one with Al Pacino’s face hidden in binary code.
They were just kids. Sophomore year. Harvard.
Zuckerberg was the engine. He’d already built Facemash, which was basically a "Hot or Not" for the campus. It nearly got him expelled. But that failure proved one thing: people are obsessed with looking at other people online. On February 4, 2004, they launched "TheFacebook." It wasn't global. It was just for Harvard students to see who was in their classes.
The Eduardo Saverin Fallout
If you want to understand the drama of the founder and co founder of facebook, you have to look at Eduardo. He was Mark’s best friend. He provided the first $1,000 for servers.
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But things got weird fast.
Mark moved to California to scale the company. Eduardo stayed on the East Coast for an internship. While Mark was rubbing elbows with Silicon Valley legends like Peter Thiel and Sean Parker, Eduardo was becoming an outsider. Eventually, Mark and the new advisors orchestrated a move to dilute Eduardo’s shares. They basically issued a ton of new stock and didn't give any to Eduardo, shrinking his 30% stake to almost nothing.
He sued. They settled. Today, Eduardo lives in Singapore and is one of the wealthiest people in the world, so it didn't end too badly for him. But the friendship? That was toast.
What Happened to the Rest?
Dustin Moskovitz didn't stay forever. He left in 2008 to start Asana. He’s a billionaire now too, but he’s way more low-key than Mark. He spends a lot of his time on "effective altruism," trying to give his money away in the smartest ways possible.
Chris Hughes took a wild turn. He left tech to help run Barack Obama’s 2008 digital campaign. Later, he bought The New Republic magazine, though that didn't go great. Now, he’s actually a vocal critic of Facebook’s monopoly power. Imagine that: a co-founder calling for the breakup of the company he helped build.
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Andrew McCollum is the "quiet" one. He’s the CEO of Philo now, a streaming TV service. He graduated Harvard after a break and just... moved on. No big public feuds, no massive political statements. Just a guy who was in the right room at the right time.
The "Stolen Idea" Controversy
We can't talk about the founder and co founder of facebook without mentioning the Winklevoss twins. Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss (and Divya Narendra) claimed Mark stole their idea for "HarvardConnection."
Mark worked for them as a coder for a bit. Then he launched his own thing.
The legal battle lasted years. The twins eventually got a $65 million settlement, which sounds like a lot, but compared to the trillion-dollar valuation of Meta today? It's pocket change. They famously used that money to buy Bitcoin early, which turned out to be a genius move in its own right.
The Reality of Success
Building something this big requires a certain level of... ruthlessness? Maybe. Mark was focused on growth at all costs. The other founders were essential for the first 100 yards, but they weren't all built for the marathon.
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By 2026, the company—now Meta—is a completely different beast. It’s about AI and VR now. The "social network" is just one part of the machine. But it all started with five guys in a cramped dorm room trying to figure out how to get girls to notice them.
What You Can Learn from the Facebook Story
If you're looking to start your own thing, there are some real-world takeaways here:
- Get it in writing. Handshake deals between friends are the fastest way to a lawsuit.
- Roles change. The person who is a great "co-founder" at $0 might not be the right person at $10 million.
- Equity is everything. Understand how dilution works before you sign anything.
- Be ready for the pivot. Facebook succeeded because it moved faster than the competition, even if it meant breaking things (and friendships) along the way.
The history of the founder and co founder of facebook is a reminder that big things often have messy beginnings. You don't need a perfect plan; you just need to be the one who actually ships the code.
Next Steps for You:
If you're researching the early days of tech giants, you should look into the original partnership agreements of companies like Apple or Google. Comparing how Jobs/Wozniak or Page/Brin handled their equity versus the Facebook crew gives you a masterclass in startup politics.