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
Running a start-up is like eating glass. You just start to like the taste of your own blood.
If there's some triumphant end of the story, I guess in a roundabout way I've gotten what I wanted, which is the ability to do interesting things and the wealth to be free.
It's never the end game. Facebook is now a platform upon which all kinds of applications are being built it's definitely not it.
Start-up teams are always in flux, so, like all start-ups, we're always talking to candidates for various key roles.
There came a time when these two incompatible notions of who I was, well, something had to give. Either that 'something' is where you acquiesce to the world around you and you conform, or you sort of defiantly break whatever remaining bonds connect you to that world and create for yourself a different set of values.
I had a desire to prove to myself that I was actually in control - that I wasn't a puppet.
You start to accumulate your library of music. You want that music everywhere - that's the point where we monetize. If you want portability, mobility, and access, then you buy it.
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'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.