The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook: A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal - Hardcover

Mezrich, Ben

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385529376 ISBN 13: 9780385529372

Publisher: Doubleday, 2009

Synopsis

The high-energy tale of how two socially awkward Ivy Leaguers, trying to increase their chances with the opposite sex, ended up creating Facebook.

Eduardo Saverin and Mark Zuckerberg were Harvard undergraduates and best friends–outsiders at a school filled with polished prep-school grads and long-time legacies. They shared both academic brilliance in math and a geeky awkwardness with women.

Eduardo figured their ticket to social acceptance–and sexual success–was getting invited to join one of the university’s Final Clubs, a constellation of elite societies that had groomed generations of the most powerful men in the world and ranked on top of the inflexible hierarchy at Harvard. Mark, with less of an interest in what the campus alpha males thought of him, happened to be a computer genius of the first order.

Which he used to find a more direct route to social stardom: one lonely night, Mark hacked into the university's computer system, creating a ratable database of all the female students on campus–and subsequently crashing the university's servers and nearly getting himself kicked out of school. In that moment, in his Harvard dorm room, the framework for Facebook was born.

What followed–a real-life adventure filled with slick venture capitalists, stunning women, and six-foot-five-inch identical-twin Olympic rowers–makes for one of the most entertaining and compelling books of the year. Before long, Eduardo’s and Mark’s different ideas about Facebook created in their relationship faint cracks, which soon spiraled into out-and-out warfare. The collegiate exuberance that marked their collaboration fell prey to the adult world of lawyers and money. The great irony is that while Facebook succeeded by bringing people together, its very success tore two best friends apart.

The Accidental Billionaires is a compulsively readable story of innocence lost–and of the unusual creation of a company that has revolutionized the way hundreds of millions of people relate to one another.


Ben Mezrich, a Harvard graduate, has published ten books, including the New York Times bestseller Bringing Down the House. He is a columnist for Boston Common and a contributor for Flush magazine. Ben lives in Boston with his wife, Tonya.

About this title

About the Author

BEN MEZRICH is the author of eleven books, including the international bestseller Bringing Down the House, which spent sixty-three weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and was made into the movie 21, starring Kevin Spacey. Ben lives in Boston with his wife, Tonya.

Reviews

Mezrich forsakes the technical and business aspects surrounding the creation of Facebook and instead opts for juicier stories of "hot girls," all-night celebrity parties, and sex. Much to the chagrin of critics, even these lurid details were not enough to entertain them. They also criticized the author's forays into fiction: it's no secret that Mezrich plays fast and loose with the truth -- he says as much in an author's note -- but reviewers complained that his plot embellishments were laughable. Mezrich's inability to obtain an interview with Zuckerberg and his reliance on Zuckerberg's bitter ex-business partners for information necessitated some conjecture, but even with invented dialogue and imagined motives, Zuckerberg fails to come to life. Facebook addicts may rejoice, but all others should avoid Billionaires.

Edition details

• Publisher: Doubleday
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0385529376
• ISBN 13: 9780385529372
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272