The Birth of Facebook
Be prepared to rework your ideas.
"I coded Facebook in my dorm room and launched it from my dorm room. I rented a server for $85 a month, and I funded it by putting an ad on the side, and we've funded ever since by putting ads on the side."
His experience with Facebook taught Zuckerberg several important things. Interviewed in The Harvard Crimson, a widely read magazine on the university campus. he said: It is clear that the technology needed to create a centralized website is readily available the benefits are many Everyone's been talking a lot about all universal Facebook within Harvard. I think it's kind of silly that it would take the University a couple of years to get around to it as I can do it better than they can, and I can do it in a week.
He was aware of a need in the marketplace, that he had the skills to fulfill it, and that as he could fulfill that need faster than anyone else, he would have the first mover advantage. Zuckerberg wanted to create a website that would allow members of the profiles, but also to connect. The idea for Facebook was born.
The very best ideas are simple.
Zuckerberg started coding Facebook in January 2004. Unsure exactly how to promote his new site, he asked his friends for advice. His roommate, Dustin Moskovitz, remembers Facebook's entrance into the world like this: When Mark finished the site, he told a couple of friends then one of them suggested putting it on 300 people By the end of the night. we were actively watching the registration process. Within 24 hours, we Had somewhere between 1200 and 1500 registrants.
Poll your friends and other contacts about your ideas.
Facebook, as it was then known, was an instant hit, but it was not without its problems. There Zuckerberg's fellow students at Harvard, Cameron Winklevoss, his brother Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra, all accused Zuckerberg of agreeing to help them build a social network called Harvard connection and then running off with their idea. They took their complaint to The Harvard Crimson, to get a voice amongst the university community at large, who began to investigate the matter.
Be very careful who you talk to, and who you work with, during the early stage of your projects.
Zuckerberg was not about to sit by blindly whilst the investigation was taking place: he wanted to know what was going on so that he would be in a stronger position to respond. Using Facebook, he was able to identify users who also worked at The Harvard Crimson. He cross-referenced their names with the list of failed logins to Facebook and then used those same passwords to try and access the users' Harvard email accounts. He successfully accessed two accounts and was thus able to read their communications as the investigation progressed. Three of the users subsequently brought a lawsuit against Zuckerberg for this abuse of trust and breach of privacy, but the case was settled.
When Facebook was launched, it was only available to members of Harvard University. You had to have a Harvard email address to sign up. This, whether deliberate or not, was a shrewd move, as a social network can only work if it has sufficient penetration within a group of people. People will only join if their friends have already joined, or if they expect to find people they know, and this is far easier to achieve if the pool of people is small. In the first month after Facebook was launched, half of Harvard's undergraduate population had signed up. The appetite for the site was proven, and its model was working.