Sean Parker
Sean Parker
Sean Parkeris an American entrepreneur and philanthropist 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, Airtime, and Brigade, an online platform for civic engagement. He is the founder and chairman of the Parker Foundation, which focuses on life sciences, global public health, and civic engagement. As of November 2015, Parker's net worth was estimated to be US$2.5 billion...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionEntrepreneur
Date of Birth3 December 1979
CityHerndon, VA
CountryUnited States of America
I've been doing a hybrid of investing and entrepreneurship, which I think initially I wasn't set out to do. But I realized it fit my personality.
I lived on couches for something like six months. I had no home. I was totally broke. I would stay at a friend's house for two weeks, then move because I didn't want to become this permanent mooch.
I've never been much of a joiner.
It would be incredibly presumptuous and self-serving of me to believe that Facebook was the end of history. The only way it could possibly be the end of history is if it becomes some sort of artificial super intelligence that takes over the world.
Solving specific problems is what drives me. I am not interested in having a career. I never have been.
I think Facebook's biggest problem is the glut of information that Facebook's power users are overwhelmed with.
My interactions with Sorkin were agonisingly weird. He is by far the weirdest person I have ever met. I had dinner with him and a few hours before I got an e-mail from his assistant saying, 'Sean, this does not need to be a long conversation. Aaron is only going to use it to win your trust.'
Your biggest challenge as an entrepreneur is not concealing your idea from others or keeping your idea a secret, it is actually convincing people that you're not crazy and that you can pull this off.
At the end of the day, money is just a proxy for votes. That is what makes politics so vulnerable to social media.
It’s not cool. I think being a wealthy member of the establishment is the antithesis of cool. Being a countercultural revolutionary is cool. So to the extent that you’ve made a billion dollars, you’ve probably become uncool.
I had a desire to prove to myself that I was actually in control - that I wasnt a puppet.
Ever since Napster I've dreamt of building a product similar to Spotify.
At every point I am besieged by people who would like me to conform to some social norm of whatever sort of social group they expect me to be a part of. I never have any identification with these social groups.
There's definitely some sort of dissent brewing between record labels, publishing companies and artists [about the compensation they get from streaming services] Spotify is returning a HUGE amount of money [to the record labels]. If we continue growing at our current rate in terms of subscriptions and downloads, we'll overtake iTunes in terms of contributions to the recorded music business in under two years.