Flush the Toilet: Young Entrepreneurs

Facebook has changed the way students interact on the internet since its creation in the winter of 2004 by Mark Zukerberg. Students have been known to spend countless hours on this social networking site filled with classmates and friends instead of doing things like: homework, eating, and sleeping. I’ve been hooked ever since they arrived at my former college, Pace University. Facebook is definitely HOT and let’s hope it stays that way.

Here’s what facebook has to share with FTT readers:

How did you guys come up with the original idea of facebook? What purpose did you originally create facebook for? How long did it take to implement?

Mark Zuckerberg, a student at Harvard, had the idea in the winter of 2004. It was a pretty simple concept: to create a universal online database for college students with social-networking functionality. He revamped the idea of the original college Facebooks—the books of bad freshman-year ID photos and boring information—by putting them online and giving students the control over the information they wanted to share with others. At the outset, Facebook was a project by and for Harvard students, but because over 6,000 Harvard kids signed up within the first three weeks, it seemed crazy not to open it up to a few other schools.

Did you ever expect facebook to blowup like it did?

The site’s growth has been incredible. In the beginning, Mark was just playing around with the idea for Harvard kids, but a few months in, it became clear that we’d created a monster. It’s transformed itself from a small, Harvard project to the ninth-most trafficked site on the web.

What was going through your minds when the site starting exploding with students from all over the country? How did you plans change then?

We quickly realized that we needed to transition the project from something done in our spare time to our primary focus. Over the following months the site became increasingly professionalized, thankfully.

What were some of the reactions that you got from friends and family when facebook really started taking off?

Pretty much could be summed up in one sentence: That’s pretty awesome.

Tell me about some of the original bills that you had to pay to keep facebook in the air once it started growing.

The only real costs we had at the outset were hosting fees and because we added schools to the site gradually we were able to keep up financially because we had complete control over the gradual expansion.

Talk to me about the support from your family and friends? Were other students jealous of your success or cheered you on?

Much more the latter.

What college do you guys attend? Did any of you guys leave college due to the success of facebook? If so, what was your reasoning for leaving?

We were all at Harvard. Mark and Dustin both decided to leave school so that they could concentrate full-time on developing the site. I decided to stay in school and have worked part-time and during the summers since the beginning. I’ll graduate in June.

Have any of you guys ever started you own business before facebook? If so, what was it?

Mark had developed some other ideas and technologies, but never anything on the level of Facebook.

When and why did you make the decision to accept venture capital money?

We accepted two rounds of venture funding, the first about six months in and the second, a little over a year in. In both instances, the funding empowered us to build Facebook better and faster, making sure that we could make the site available to all college and high school students before our two-year anniversary in February of 2006.

What roles do the original founders of the company play now?

Mark is the CEO, Dustin is the CTO, and I work as the company’s spokesperson.

I am sure that many people would assume that Mark (the founder) makes all the big decisions. Is there any truth to that? How do you guys go about making big decisions?

As CEO, he provides vision to the company and takes responsibility for all company actions.

I hear you guys moved out to California, how has that been for you? Was the choice easy?

The move out to Silicon Valley was just pretty logical—that’s more or less where the Internet lives. Plus the weather is a lot nicer than Boston.

What do you guys do for fun on your spare time?

What spare time?

I hear facebook is up for sale, true? If so, what to you envision happening to facebook once it’s acquired?

I think you’re referencing the Business Week article from last week. That piece, and the rumors that have circulated about the Internet since, are nothing but speculation. We do not comment on rumors.

Have you guys ever thought about starting a new company with a completely different focus?

No—we’re building Facebook to be the best it can be. That’s a huge enough responsibility for now.

How old are each of you guys? How do you feel being so young and so successful at the same time?

Mark and Dustin are 21, I’m 22.

Since you guys are all young and some of you are still in college, do you feel more inclined to hire other students and recent grads as employees?

In general, Facebook is focused on preserving its connection to youth, because we run a website that has college and high school students at its heart. We believe we’ve developed a staff that has a great balance between professional experience and fresh approaches to the Internet and how it can reflect or change “real-life” social scenarios.