The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook: A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal by Ben Mezrich

• Interviews & Essays

Interviews & Essays

Q&A:

BEN MEZRICH/ACCIDENTAL BILLIONAIRES Q&A FOR BN.COM:

1)You seem to be drawn to these larger-than-life, fast-paced, and rags-to-riches stories of young entrepreneurs - also known as "lad lit." How did you discover the amazing story of the creation of Facebook?

I've always been intrigued by stories about brilliant kids who stumble into something spectacular - and in a way, THE ACCIDENTAL BILLIONAIRES was something I stumbled into as well. It started with an email I received at 2 in the morning through my fan site, from a Harvard senior; in the email, the kid said he had a friend with a story I might be interested in. At the time, I knew very little about the history of Facebook, but I loved using the site; I agreed to meet this college kid and his friend at a local bar here in Boston. When I showed up, I was introduced to Eduardo Saverin, who had co-founded the company in his Harvard dorm room - and from the minute he started telling me his story, I knew this was going to be my next book.

2) Harvard is a central character in THE ACCIDENTAL BILLIONAIRES. You provide a bird's-eye view of life on campus as well as the machinations behind the secretive Finals Clubs. How did you gain access to the Clubs? Has Harvard changed much since you attended and was there anything that you learned about the university while writing the book that surprised you?

Part of the thrill for me in writing this book was that I really feel connected to these kids because I was a lot like them. Not anywhere near as smart - but I was a geeky, gawky kid trying to navigate the same odd social structures of Harvard. To get deep inside this story -as I do with all my books - I immersed myself in that world again, and spent many hours on campus. I managed to get in with a great group of Final Club members, who snuck me into secret parties, got me deep behind the crimson ropes. Harvard hasn't really changed that much since I was there - except for Facebook itself, which has become a dominant part of the social world on every college campus.

3) Loss of innocence is a recurring theme throughout THE ACCIDENTAL BILLIONAIRES. How did Facebook begin? How did its abrupt rise change the relationship between the two best friends, Eduardo Saverin and Mark Zuckerberg?

Simply put, Facebook began with a college prank. Late one night, Mark Zuckerberg hacked into Harvard's computer system, pulling up the photos of every girl on campus to create a sort of "hot or not" website, a ratable database of all the female students - subsequently, crashing the university's servers and nearly getting himself kicked out of school. Realizing he was on to something interesting, he went to his friend Eduardo Saverin, and together they hashed out a plan to use what they had learned from this prank to create an exclusive site that sort of mimicked an online Final Club - a social setting where guys like them could be part of a social scene that would eventually link every kid on campus. At first, it was just the two of them, best friends in a college dorm room - but as the company exploded, rapidly becoming more popular than either of them could ever imagine - it tore them apart.

4) Mark Zuckerberg is driven, brilliant, and also the planet's youngest billionaire. Do you believe he is the next Bill Gates? How do you think Facebook will adapt to new technological arrivals such as Twitter?

I think Mark Zuckerberg could definitely be the next Bill Gates. I think Facebook is one of the most significant, society changing advances in the past ten years; I really feel that we've gone from the Village to the City to Facebook- our social lives have gone digital because of what Mark Zuckerberg created. Going forward, the question is, how will Facebook continue to meld itself to changes in technology and population. Twitter is growing fast, but Facebook is making efforts to adjust to incorporate Twitter-like features. But Twitter isn't the all encompassing pastime that Facebook is; people use Twitter, but they live on Facebook. That's the significant difference.

5) Sean Parker (co-founder of Napster and Plaxo) provides an entrée into the VC (venture capitalist) world of Silicon Valley for Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin. What was Sean Parker's goal in pursuing the Facebook team?

Sean Parker is this brilliant, amazing wild child - he's the kid who co-founded Napster, then co-founded Plaxo, then helped bring Facebook from a dorm room project to a billion dollar company. He discovered Facebook almost by accident - but he was already looking for his next billion dollar idea, and he already knew it was going to be something in the social network area. He was one of the first people to recognize the genius behind what Mark had done and he did everything he could to take Facebook to the next level.

6) There is a fascinating scene between Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss (who had hired Mark Zuckerberg to do programming work on their forthcoming website) and Harvard President Larry Summers. The twins want to file a formal complaint with the university about Mark's Facebook launch. Can you describe Summers's reticence? Why would the university not get involved in the dispute?

Yes, the Winklevoss twins - 6'5", identical Olympic Rowers and members of one of Harvard's most elite Finals Clubs - had hired Mark Zuckerberg to work on their own website, and thus believed that Mark had stolen their idea. They managed to get a meeting with Summers, who was President of Harvard at the time. They wanted Summers to get involved - to investigate Mark and see if he had stolen from them. But Summers threw their charge back in their face. Summers decided it was a dispute between students that had nothing to do with him or the University.

7) What were your methods of research for ACCIDENTAL BILLIONAIRES?

I write narrative nonfiction and all of my books reflect my writing style - I call it "immersion journalism" and am usually drawn into the story by the participants. I provide the reader an inside view of these larger-than-life characters and the astounding circumstances that create their story. To be clear about my process: ACCIDENTAL BILLIONAIRES is a dramatic account based on dozens of interviews (including Eduardo Saverin), hundreds of sources, and thousands of pages of documents, including records from court proceedings. When a number of different - and often contentious - opinions about some events that took place in the book I re-created the scenes in the book based on the information I uncovered from documents and interviews. I used my best judgment as to what version most fits the documentary record

8) Kevin Spacey is producing the movie version of THE ACCIDENTAL BILLIONAIRES. How is the movie progressing and have you been involved at all? Who would you like to see cast as Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, and Sean Parker?

The movie is moving along nicely; hopefully we will shoot later this year. Kevin Spacey, Dana Brunetti, Scott Rudin, and Mike Deluca are producing for Columbia/Sony, and Aaron Sorkin adapted the screenplay. They are in the process of signing a director now, and I think it will go very fast from there. There are a lot of great actors whose names have been bandied about, and I like them all - Michael Cera, Shia LaBeouf, etc. What's great about the story is that these kids are so young, and the Harvard setting is so unique. I'm certain Sorkin has done a fantastic job, as he's a genius, and I can't wait to see this put together.