Introduction
The following summary is about the book “The Accidental Billionairs” by Ben Mezrich, published in 2012 by the Bildungshaus Schulbuchverlage. It is the story of Mark Zuckerberg, who is the founder of Facebook.
Chapter 1 and 2: “October 2003 and “Harvard Yard”
Eduardo Saverin, a junior at the Havard University, is at the “Alpha Epsilon Pi, meet-and-greet-party”, where he meets a member of the Phoenix-S K, a final club with huge influence on the social status and the future of its members. The Phoenix arranges four punch events, which are like mass interviews. Less and less people will be invited to the next event. After the last punch, the new members will be initiated. Because Eduardo wants to be a part of one of these clubs, he talks about his hedge fund, with which he made a lot of money by trading with oil.
Later, he talks to Mark Zuckerberg for the first time, a sophomore and a computer genius. Eduardo is so impressed, that he wants to be a friend of him.
Eduardo also thinks about the invitation to the fourth punch event from the Phoenix and that his date is a hot girl. He wants to impress the members with her.
Chapter 3 and 4: “On the Charles” and “Cannibalistic Chicken”
Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss are two identical twins with a big rowing talent. They are members of the Porcellian Final Club, which is the most prestigious and elite club in America. They and their friend Divya Narendra work on a big project: The Havard Connection. It is a connection and dating website to improve Harvard’s social life. The former web developer left, so they are searching for a new one.
Eduardo gets initiated to the Phoenix. One part of this ritual is that he has to keep a chicken for five days alive and healthy and also to never leave it alone, even though he has a lesson. One time, he feeds the chicken with fried chicken and two members of the Porcellian message an animal rights group to damage the Phoenix’ image. Also, Eduardo and Mark have a date with two girls, Eduardo met at a Phoenix Party.
Chapter 5 and 6: “The Last Week of October 2003” and “Later That Evening”
Mark is drunk and about to create a website called Facemash.com. It is a site, where always two girls from Havard are compared and people can vote on which one is more attractive. To get all the pictures, he tries to hack every house’s facebook and at the same time he writes a blog about the hacking.
Because he could not hack into every house’s facebook, he decides to break into the Harvard residence house to collect the missing pictures from its database – which he achieves.
Chapter 7 and 8: “What Happens Next” and “The Qaud”
After finding out what he had exactly done when he was drunk, he decided to finish it. To get a feedback about his website, he sends the link to a few friends. After a class meeting, he realizes that Facemash gained a lot of currency during his absence, because hundreds of students clicked the link and voted. To stop it, he shuts the entire program down.
Tyler, Cameron and Divya read the Crimson, the campus newspaper, and find an article about Mark’s website. They are impressed by Mark’s skills and want to contact him to involve him in their project.
Chapter 9 and 10: “The Connection” and “November 25, 2003”
Mark has to go to the advisory board, which has the right to suspend or expel a student. After Mark apologized a lot, they decide to let him stay at school, if no further incidents would happen. Mark also tells Eduardo about an e-mail from Divya Narendra, in which he invites Mark to join a project as a web developer. Eduardo does not want him to join, but Mark is resolved.
The Winklevoss twins are about to meet Mark. A friend asks them, where they went, but they want to keep it secret. After the twins explained everything to Mark, he seems excited about the website, where boys and girls can meet. Tyler promises him, that he would be in the center of attention to improve his damaged image and also would receive a part of the profit.
Chapter 11 and 12: “Cambridge, 1” and “January 14, 2004”
Eduardo is at a restaurant, the Cambridge, 1. He gives a review about what happened ten days earlier: his initiation to the Phoenix. The ritual included drinking bottles of Jack Daniel’s in teams, almost swimming through the river Charles and more alcohol and toasts. In brief, he was really drunk.
Mark is at the restaurant, too. He tells Eduardo about his latest idea: The Facebook. It is a social network, where friends can share pictures and communicate with each other. Eduardo wants to be a part of this project, that’s why he sponsors the start-up cash of a thousand dollars with the money from his hedge fund. Mark also explains that he had not worked for the Winklevoss yet, because he does not want to be used.
Tyler, Cameron and Divya are disappointed, because they do not move forward with the Harvard Connection, even though Mark wrote in several e-mails, that he has almost finished the website. After he told them in one e-mail that he is not sure about the functionality, they want to meet Mark. After the meeting, Tyler has doubts concerning Mark’s ability to be a businessman, because Mark said some lame excuses and seemed to be no longer interested. They decide to leave him alone for some weeks and if nothing will change, they will search for a new programmer.
Chapter 13 and 14: “February 4, 2004” and “February 9, 2004”
Mark finishes his project “thefacebook.com”. To make the website more popular, he decided that only Harvard students can register, because they would feel exclusive. Eduardo is impressed by Mark’s skills to keep something simple and also make it attractive to people at the same time. To spread the site quickly, they decided that Eduardo sends the link to all members of the Phoenix, because they have a high social status and know a lot of girls, and also to the Kirkland House’s students.
The Winklevoss twins and Divya read about “thefacebook” in the Crimson. They are upset, because Mark’s website is similar to their idea of the Harvard Connection. Tyler is shocked how insidious Mark has been and that he only pretended to help them, while he was stealing their concept. He calls his father, a self-made multimillionaire, who puts him on with his lawyer, with whom Tyler can talk about possible future actions.
Chapter 15 and 16: “American Idol” and “Veritas”
Mark and Eduardo are at a lecture from Bill Gates, Mark’s idol. Eduardo notices, that a lot of people recognize Mark, but not him, but it does not matter to him. He mentions, that five thousand people signed up to “thefacebook”. After the lecture, Eduardo wants to talk to Mark about making money with “thefacebook”, because it will cost more and more.
But as he wants to talk to Mark, he finds an e-mail from the Winklevoss twins in Mark’s room, in which they accuse Mark of stealing their concept and therewith a violation of their rights. They also want him to stop the expansion of “thefacebook”.
Mark is not scared of them and answers, that “thefacebook” is neither based on the same code nor on the Harvard Connection concept. Then, Mark’s roommates come in. Mark wants to involve them into his project, too, because “thefacebook” is growing fast. Chris Hughes, a great talker, will be responsible for publicity and outreach and Dustin Moskovitz, a computer expert, will be the programmer.
Mark wants to expand “thefacebook”, so that other schools have also access to it.
A few hours later, Eduardo takes advantage of Mark’s fame and has sex with a groupie.
Because Mark did not follow their instructions, the Winklevoss twins talk to a senior tutor, the advisory board and finally to the president of Harvard, Lawrence H. Summers, but all of them do not feel responsible and do not see it as a university issue.
Reading log: The Accidental Billionaires 