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  • Published: 1 July 2010
  • ISBN: 9781409069508
  • Imprint: Cornerstone Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 272

The Accidental Billionaires

Sex, Money, Betrayal and the Founding of Facebook




The fast-paced story of two Ivy-League outcasts who concocted a scheme to meet girls, and ended up inventing Facebook

Eduardo Saverin and Mark Zuckerberg - an awkward maths prodigy and a painfully shy computer genius - were never going to fit in at elite, polished Harvard. Yet that all changed when master-hacker Mark crashed the university's entire computer system by creating a rateable database of female students. Narrowly escaping expulsion, the two misfits refocused the site into something less controversial - 'The Facebook' - and watched as it spread like a wildfire across campuses around the country, along with their popularity.

Yet amidst the dizzying levels of cash and glamour, as silicon valley, venture capitalists and reams of girls beckoned, the first cracks in their friendship started to appear, and what began as a simple argument spiralled into an out-and-out war. The great irony is that Facebook succeeded by bringing people together - but its very success tore two best friends apart.

  • Published: 1 July 2010
  • ISBN: 9781409069508
  • Imprint: Cornerstone Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 272

About the author

Ben Mezrich

Ben Mezrich is the New York Times bestselling author of The Accidental Billionaires and Bringing Down the House in addition to many other books, both fiction and non-fiction. The major motion picture 21, starring Kevin Spacey, was based on Bringing Down the House. The Oscar-winning film The Social Network was adapted from The Accidental Billionaires. Mezrich lives in Boston with his wife and son.

Also by Ben Mezrich

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Praise for The Accidental Billionaires

Bringing Down the House showed geeks outsmarting the casinos. Mezrich's latest focuses on two Harvard students who tried to build an online database of girls...and created Facebook

GQ

The Accidental Billionaires is at its best when it describes the fraternity-house atmosphere that governs the start-ups early days...a colourful tale

Economist

A fascinating read

bookbag.co.uk

Even if you've never logged on to Facebook, the premise behind this true story is irresistible . . . A 21st century fable, it unfolds with all the narrative verve of a novel

Daily Mail

Funny and insightful

Urbanjunkies.com

Has the perfect dramatic narrative for a Hollywood thriller

Time Out

Mezrich... paints the drama in lurid colour...[a] thrill-packed story

Amber Cowan, London Lite

Pure summer fun . . . Juicy, fast-paced, unputdownable . . . Ben has a gift for finding high-energy, strange-but-true tales and The Accidental Billionaires is no exception . . . [It is] a captivating story of betrayal, vast amounts of cash, and two friends who revolutionized the way humans connect to one another.

Kevin Spacey

You'll be utterly enthralled

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