The Accidental Billionaires

By: Ben Mezrich

Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain

Length: 7 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's Summary

The Accidental Billionaires is the inspiration behind the Oscar winning film, The Social Network, dramatising Zuckerberg’s success and proving you don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies…

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.

©2009 Ben Mezrich (P)2010 Random House Audio

A good read

I listened to this book over a period of 5 days.

Every time I had a break from my busy schedule, which is not a lot, I listened to the book.



It is very enlightening. I was happy to learn all the details of the Facebook story.

I had already watched the movie "The Social Network" and this book filled in all the gaps. It also helped to put everything into context and to clear up any exaggerations from the movie.

It is a very worthwhile book to listen to especially for anyone who is interested in knowing how life events shape the world.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Great book

I found myself listening whenever I could! A great book, especially for fans of 'The Social Network'.

Faction not history

I'm not saying its not good just that its not history, there's a lot of speculation. And guess work involved, but all in all its quite good, give an interesting view of the early history of one of the world most used website

Interesting, lively account

Ben Mezrich has drawn together interesting material to produce this account. I knew that Facebook had begun its life as a device for male students to rate female students at Harvard, but not its really 'on the legal edge' origins. Mezrich allows us to reflect on the people and the purposes behind the product, and its influences way, way, beyond the origins, and the costs of 'free to use' services (well, who does fund the servers?). This book is excellently read by Mike Chamberlain, who manages to keep a fresh and interested tone throughout. This is a very good listen.

Interesting save for narration

It is an interesting story that I wanted to know about out of curiosity but would not say that it left me spellbound.
The narrator did not bring characters to life. I had to pay really attention.

Better than the movie

Great insight in to the foundation of facebook. I found the book much better than the movie.