1. Sean Parker
of
Business
Hala Abdulla and Jessica Fyles
Giants of Social Media Presentation
Social Media Strategies & Tactics
April 14, 2012

2. A “Giant” of Social Media
Founding President Managing Partner
Co-Founder Board of Directors
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3. Parker's Early Timeline
Born in Herndon, VA, graduate of Chantilly High School

Father taught Parker to code on an Atari 800

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At age 16, arrested by the F.B.I. for hacking into the network of a
Fortune 500 company
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Earned more than $80,000/year by his senior year of high school
from various coding and start-up projects
Skipped college to pursue career as entrepreneur

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4. Napster

At 15, Parker met 14 year-old Shawn Fanning over the Internet

At 19, co-founded Napster with Fanning, a peer-to-peer free Internet
file-sharing service for music

Launched Napster in June 1999
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Within one year, the service had tens of millions of users

Forced to shut down due to lawsuits by several music industry
labels
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Considered the fastest growing business of all time

Credited with revolutionizing the music industry – people still
download music today
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Considered the foundation for iTunes 4

5. Plaxo
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Parker launched Plaxo in November 2002
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Online address book and social networking service integrated
with Microsoft Outlook
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Earned 20 million users
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Parker was fired in 2004 from Plaxo
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Foundation for different social networking platforms such as
Linkedin, Zynga and Facebook
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6. Facebook

Parker saw Thefacebook on the computer of his roommate’s girlfriend, a
student at Stanford. First met Mark Zuckerberg in New York after
exchanging emails
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In June 2004, met again in Palo Alto, where Parker was unemployed.
Zuckerberg invited him to move into Facebook’s newly rented summer
house. Became President soon thereafter

Negotiated for Zuckerberg to retain three of Facebook’s five board seats.
This gave Zuckerberg control of the company (lessons learned from Plaxo)

Parker is said to have championed Facebook’s clean user interface and
developed its photo-sharing function
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7. Spotify
Realization of the dream Parker and Fanning had with Napster

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In 2010, Parker invested $15 million in Spotify, a
European/Swedish streaming music service
Currently serves on Spotify’s board of directors

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In 2011 Spotify announced its U.S. launch and its partnership
with Facebook, which allows Facebook users to share their
Spotify playlists on their own profiles
Sean Parker: Spotify Fulfills Original Napster Vision
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8. Parker's Latest Status

Managing partner at the Founders Fund, Peter Thiel's venture
capital fund, since 2006. Looks for and supports the spirit of
innovation in up-and-coming developers and focuses on investing
in early-stage companies

Reunited with his Napster co-founder Shawn Fanning on Airtime,
a social video site to be launched by the end of 2012
Philanthropist – raises funds for multiple causes.

Founder of
Causes, one of Facebook's earliest applications
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9. Comments (4)

One to watch for the future of social media. A genius in terms of
programming, hacking, and online technology AND the long-term
vision of a sharp businessman to spot a great idea and a potential
breakthrough
Complete opposite of Justin Timberlake's portrayal in “The Social

Network”

Parker is critical of gossip sites and news related to his public
image and personal life, even though he is the social media
innovator of sharing everything, from personal favorites to
professional skills

Fired or forced to leave three companies he helped create,
believed to be due to his non-traditional approaches.
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10. Thank You!
Questions?
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