The Accidental Billionaires

The Founding of Facebook: A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal

By: Ben Mezrich

Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain

Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

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 listenable 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 best seller 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.

©2009 Ben Mezrich (P)2009 Random House

excellent

thrilling history about 2 collegues boys at harvard and how they build a giant internet business from scratch

Mixed bag

It's fascinating reading about how Facebook started, and I think the author manages to explain why Mark Zuckerberg did what he did, and didn't think he was doing anything wrong. It's not a hatchet job, although it could have been.

But I would have preferred it if the author didn't sink to the gutter and insult his readers by assuming that everything they did was because of sex. That's extremely one-dimensional and lame. I can agree with the criticisms and the praise for this book, because its interesting in spite of being hyped.

It's a pity the author has no clue about technical details, because it shows. How a single laptop running a web server can bring down an entire university's computer system, including mail servers, is asserted but sadly not explained.

The narrator managed to make a poor script sound better than it was, and deserves credit for keeping the story moving. This book isn't on my top 10 list of great reads, but my curiosity has been satisfied. I won't be seeing the movie.

Excellent book

I highly recommend this audio book. The narrator is excellent. The story is amazing, out of this world! It has it all, an inside look at life at Harvard through the eyes of computer geeks, nerds and misfits! Who became billionaires! What more can I say, I loved this book.

Enjoyed every minute

Used it to fall asleep to at .6 speed, and it worked wonders. Probably will go back and listen to again soon.

ENTERTAINIING

The book gave a better perspective of Eduardo Saverin and the Winklevoss twins...more so than the Facebook Effect.

I loved the part about punking Sequoia Capital....we need more of that.

Enjoy.

Painful but Interesting

The almost sarcastic tone of the reader of this book didn't appeal to me and I found I kept reading but wanted it to be over. Very interesting read but a bit of a let down to find the people behind Facebook are less than inspiring. I wanted to slap them halfway through the book.

fantastic read that I could couldn't put down!

I have not been able to stop listening to this book. I love it and they also sell is very engaging and is cheap shoe installed even after you've read it several times. I was very intrigued about the all the behind-the-scenes details they got them included. it makes you think that the Winklevoss Twins or very right to file their lawsuit and that Eduardo Saverin will severely f***** over by Mark Zuckerberg. Mark Zuckerberg, for his part oh, and he has every chance to comment, is truly a dick and he is a thief as well! He does not deserve all the success he has attained at the expense of other people.

The Social NetJERK

From simple prank in a college dorm room to billion dollar industry, the meteoric rise of Facebook is chronicled here along with the heartbreak and drama that came from its co founder, Eduardo Saverin.

Great book. I remember when I first joined Facebook

This book shows the background trials and tribulations that went behind the creation of the biggest social force of the internet. I still think this is the best way to create an internet company today

Informative and Interesting

The information related in this book was very interesting. If it's actually 100 percent accurate it would make me want to close my facebook account.

It was extremely over dramatized at times and some of the "filler" details were way over the top and unnecessary.

But it was a very interesting read and if you have a facebook account I would definitely recommend it.