Where In The World Is Eduardo Saverin?
This story takes place a few weeks after thefacebook launched.
It was March of 2004 and I was attending an alumni event for Harvard Student Agencies (HSA) – a student run company at Harvard. Being a past president of HSA, I made a point of attending this event just to stay in touch with the students and school. As the evening drew to a close, I asked one of the current HSA managers, “What’s the coolest thing on campus these days?” Her response with conviction was, “Thefacebook. It just came out last month and everyone is using it on campus.” Apparently some sophomores had set up a website intended to be a better online version of the Freshman Facebook – a physical book with the pictures of each member of the freshman class. The Freshman Facebook was the dating (or more realistically, scouting) manual used by all freshmen to keep tabs on the classmates that caught their eye.
Intrigued, I went home and checked out thefacebook.com (which I will now refer to as Facebook). The site was only open to those with a harvard.edu email, but fortunately my post.harvard.edu alumni email worked liked a charm. After logging in and checking out the features, I had an “aha” moment. The founders had made a simple yet brilliant innovation which did not exist on any other social network. They had uploaded the Harvard course catalog into the network so that with a single drop down menu, you could sort the entire network by those taking the same class as you. The limitation of the Freshman Facebook was the limited content and the fact that if an upper classmen caught your eye, there was no reliable way to find out that person’s name or learn more about him/her. But now with Facebook, you could come back from class, go online, sort the network by that class, click through the photos and once you found that person – voila. You could see everything about that person that they cared to share which was a lot more than the Freshman Facebook. Facebook was the killer college dating application.
Since at that time I was at another venture capital firm which invested in start-ups, I was eager to meet the people behind Facebook. Maybe there was an investment opportunity. I looked around the site and saw that it was “a Mark Zuckerberg production”. I messaged Mark and scheduled a meeting for the very next afternoon at Henrietta’s Table – a restaurant at The Charles Hotel in Cambridge, MA. I showed up to the restaurant at 3:00pm and there was Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin waiting. We decided to sit outside given the unseasonably warm weather in Boston that day. We ordered some drinks, and they began to tell me the nascent but exciting story of how they, along with some others, started Facebook.
Mark and Eduardo had a complementary aspect to their partnership. Mark struck me as the alpha male. He had a profound confidence about him that exceeded his youth. He exuded killer instinct. He was not shy about sharing his aspirations of dominating the college market. He was also the technical visionary behind the scenes. Eduardo was polite and unassuming. He could have been your college roommate. He was jovial, relational, and likeable. He seemed to be the fast follower. He was also apparently the business mind. While both exuded a certain naivete, they were both convinced that they were going to change the world. They were right.
After that meeting, my mind was consumed with the potential of Facebook. It was only a couple days later that I had a second meeting with Mark and Eduardo. Yet again, we met at Henrietta’s Table – but this time for breakfast. I arrived first, and as Mark and Eduardo came in – it was obvious they had woken up early for this meeting. In fact, Mark’s first comment with a broken smile was that he normally doesn’t get up this early. I was truly appreciative. We got down to business, and I asked Mark and Eduardo about their plans for Facebook and their interest in raising venture financing. They said that they had not yet met with any venture capitalists, but had some initial discussions with a couple angel investors. Mark also expressed his intent to leave school and move to Silicon Valley to lead Facebook full-time. Mark seemed deeply committed to it while Eduardo tried unsuccessfully to project the same confidence. I asked them if they had thought about how much the company was worth. Mark confidently articulated a valuation that some angels had given him. Eduardo stared, paused, and tentatively nodded in agreement.
I invited Mark and Eduardo to my office the next week. While I was unsure of whether this was a good fit with the firm I was at, I decided to take a couple hours that day, and walk them through a blank term sheet. I figured whether we invested in Facebook or someone else did, Mark and Eduardo would benefit from understanding the standard financing terms. I felt a certain obligation to make sure they were educated enough to not sign up to a bad deal. So, we sat there each with a copy of a blank term sheet. I walked through each term and explained in the simplest language what they meant – “preferred”, “voting rights”, “anti-dilution”, “protective provisions”, “registration rights”, “information rights”, “board of directors”, etc. I explained to them the range of options under each, and what was normal. This time Eduardo exuded the confidence. He nodded with assurance after nearly every provision articulating that he knew what that provision meant. He said he had “studied it in school”. I found that to be curious since during my time at Harvard, not a single finance course was offered, let alone one on venture capital term sheets. Maybe things had changed I thought. Nonetheless, I continued to explain things in detail presuming no prior knowledge.
After the session, Mark and Eduardo informed me that they had no transportation home and they had taken a cab to come visit me. Feeling guilty that it never occurred to me that they didn’t have a car, I drove them home myself and paid for their cab fare. We had a nice conversation on the way home. We talked about Eduardo’s girlfriend at Wellesley who he was clearly infatuated with. We talked with Mark about the Bay Area and moving to California, which he was enthusiastic about. And, after the quick drive down the Mass Pike, we took the Cambridge/Allston exit, looped back towards Harvard and I dropped Mark and Eduardo off at Johnston Gate, the main entrance to Harvard Yard.
That was the last time I saw either Mark or Eduardo because an investment ultimately did not work out. Since then, Mark has obviously gone on to change the world – just as he expected to. Mark has accomplished everything he said he would and more. But, when I think back on this experience, a big part of me wonders what happened to Eduardo. I’ve heard about the break-up with Mark early on which makes me wonder what happened behind the scenes. I wonder how Eduardo was treated in the whole process. When people tell the Facebook story now, it seems like Eduardo gets deleted from many versions and included in some. But, from my vantage point, Facebook will always be about Mark and Eduardo. No matter what is written out there, I’ll always believe that Eduardo Saverin is a co-founder of Facebook.
(Eduardo, if you read this, give me a call. Let’s go grab a bite to eat. Henrietta’s Table – I’ll drive.)
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This is a great story, Larry. Thanks for sharing it!
Ha, you should start your own anti-portfolio a la Bessemer!.
Having been at Bessemer, I appreciate the fact that if you don’t have an anti-portfolio, you’re just not seeing the best deals. So, no shame in an anti-portfolio – and FB would certainly be on it!
Thanks for the story Larry. Always fascinating hearing about the dynamics between founders. Seems like in many cases a dominant personality emerges and seizes the reigns (Jobs/Wozniak) and a large share of the stock and credit of the company – often times not reflecting a objectively “fair” split.
Thanks for reading. I don’t know if the split here was fair or not – hopefully it was. I wonder what the Jobs/Wozniak split was.
I would love to know more about what happened…doing a story on it right now.
Very interesting story – thanks for sharing.
Per LinkedIn, Eduardo is in NYC:
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/eduardo-saverin/0/70a/31b
I think you’re right. I’ve gotten multiple outreaches over email that he is in NYC at a start-up. Though one college friend of his said he may very well be on a beach somewhere.
Larry, great story… Michael Lewis could have ghost written it… after all these years, isn’t it time to give up the pre-money valuation the angels suggested?
I thought about it, but decided against it since it’s really proprietary information.
Larry, great story indeed…
Thanks Waikit- appreciate it. Hope things are going well with your company.
Larry
Great story Larry – people need to know this. I have suggested it as a tip to techmeme.com and hope it gets picked up.
Thanks Mrinal, I appreciate that!
For some people, its all about the passion to do something great. The power, fame, and money is always going to take a backseat. Eduardo might be happy where he is and very content not to have the headlines or the enemies.
SC, that actually wouldn’t surprise me. Many folks have pointed me towards Eduardo – I’m sure he’s doing just great.
Good piece my friend. Certainly a type 2 error, but one most of us, certiainly myself, would have made as well….along with Google.
Great story, a nice sidebar to the upcoming tell-all book. I liked reading the story of Marc Andreessen and Netscape back in the day. Facebook is amazing and brilliant but to me it’s not an interesting story unless you dig into the legal issues surrounding just who actually came up with the concept (not Mark).
Thanks Dave. I actually didn’t know about the tell all book until after I wrote this post. That should be an interesting read.
It all started in the year 2003 when I was logged in to the Harvard website, where I was listening in to the conversations of the Harvard students. One of these students was Mark Zuckerberg who was talking about Face Smash and he had just broken up with his girlfriend at the time, so I struck up a conversation with this Mark Zuckerberg. He was talking about creating a dating site. I thought this was a bit odd – a pie in the sky idea since he had just broken up with his girlfriend and he was slagging her off – calling her a bitch and a whore.
I talked to Mark about the idea, and suggested he call it Face Mash. He was intrigued with my suggestion and thought it was a good idea. Mark wanted to call it Face Smash, because he wanted to smash his ex in the face. I convinced him that Face Mash was a good idea and he agreed, but one week later he changed his mind and wanted to call it Face Smash. When I queried him about this he replied ‘f…. off you c…- I’m calling it Face Smash’. Two weeks after this conversation he came up with the name Mashable and when I asked him why he chose the word Mashable instead of Face Mash he said ‘f,…off you bastard, Face mash is not your idea’. So I re-posted the conversations we had two weeks earlier and he had to apologise and said he was going with Mashable. I took this as a sign that he wanted to throw me off the scent and take the site for himself.
I found the character of Mark Zuckerberg to be deceptive and dishonest and ended conversing with Mark Zuckerberg because of his dishonesty and lack of integrity
Larry,
I enjoyed this piece immensely. It’s interesting that companies like Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft were stories about 2 guys and a dream. Facebook has been a one guy story. I wonder if that could ultimately be an Achilles Heel. I guess I’m glad that I have a partner in crime — we keep each other honest and intellectually sober.
Cheers,
Alex
I’ve come to appreciate more and more the value of having partners. It’s hard to do things solo no matter how talented you are.
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Great story!
Great post! Thank you for sharing.
Larry – Seems Eduardo was a source for the Accidental Billionaire book on Facebook. Fortune has details on it with a talk with Mezrich, the author. I tipped it and its up on techmeme right now:
“The book that Facebook doesn’t want you to read”
http://www.techmeme.com/090625/p82#a090625p82
Great post, Larry. You’re like Woody Allen’s Zelig. Ben Mezrich’s book, Accidental Billionaire, will be a hit. Ben is a talented writer and brilliant marketer/promoter. Here’s an ironic twist – Ben was a Harvard classmate of mine (1991) and…Sheryl Sandberg’s — currently COO of Facebook. I doubt I’ll be seeing Ben and Sheryl sipping chardonnay together at the upcoming 20th reunion in a few years.
Interesting background, thanks Larry. The Accidental Billionaires is currently being broadcast by the BBC as Book of the Week : http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qftk (starting 27 July 2009)
Interesting. I’ve been seeing Mark on the headlines and wondered about what the co-founders have been doing, maybe off to something else I said. Can’t help but think that maybe Mark is trying to repeat the history when he dropped out of Harvard. He seems like the next Bill Gates to me. They both dropped out of school and succeeded when they pursued their dreams. It may not be a good advice but the story just fascinates me.
I like how you described Mark and the contrast with Eduardo. It’s amazing how from small and simple things great things come to pass.
Great story Larry, according to Mezrich book Accidental Billionaires, Saverin got betrayed by his best friend mark, he went back to havard believing that he is a large shareholder and only to realize later that hes been shortchanged. My hope is that Mark will bring him back to the fold as a director of facebook.
but the book also shows how eduardo betrayed mark by blocking the accounts through which facebook was funded…
I’m reading the book “The Accidental Billionaire” one of the best books I’ve read in years. Wow what a crazy story. Too bad they tricked him into signing away his 30%. How’s someone in their 20′s suppose to realize what they were signing anyway? I’m not at the point where I know the ending of the story yet. Just passed the signing away part. So maybe there’s a happy ending. Goes to show that you have to careful with contracts though that’s for sure.
Did he give you that call?
Dear Larry
It´s a great story. I´m a journalist in São Paulo, Brazil, working for the website called iG. And i´d like to interview Eduardo, who is brazilian, I guess. May I ask you his email? Shure, I will write about your encounter with the Facebook guys too.
Thank you for your help
Best
C. Volpato
I thought this article was amazing. I don’t know who is going to recieve this but i just feel as though your work deserves some appreciation.
Sincerely
Ronald Bradley Pingle
A book on the founding of “thefacebook” is “The Accidental Billionares:The Founding of Facebook,A Tale of Sex,Money,Genius and Betrayal” by Ben Mezrich. In the back it even has a little “where are they now?” “Eduardo Saverin continues to split his time between Boston and New York. He is a frequent vistor to the hallowed upper floors of Phoenix….”
larry – i’ve got the script. it’s fantastic. if you want a copy, email me.
Hi, believe it your or not, i have some news about Eduardo. Actually, i have heard he is in Singapore now, developing a new software. My step father is always in touch with Eduardo’s mother.
I’m from São Paulo, the same place where he was born.
Send me an e-mail if you want to find him, maybe i can help you.
Hi Larry, nice piece, this is indeed a great story. BTW, Mr.”!” (no name just the exclamation mark) I am also in SP/BR and I am about to open an IT school in the city. I know this sounds crazy, and even audacious on my part, but I’d love to get ES to give a lecture to our classes someday. Think you might be able to connect us? Cheers, Marc.
Dear Larry
I would like to confirm the news, Eduardo is in Singapore…Rumors are he is developing FB apps….hopefully I will run into him one day…would love to hear his side of the story…all said and done…I feel this guy will take out Mark in the years to come….
Cheers
Sanket
People, may be Mark is a traitor or not, I think history is on his side. Have we forgotten about Nikola Tesla and Thomas Eddy? Greatness = Genius + POLITICS! Thanks Larry.