Image via Complex Original
After building the world's largest social network and becoming one of the richest people on the planet, it's hard to believe that Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg is only turning 28 today. At half the age of the average S&P 500 CEO, Zuckerberg has accomplished more than his contemporaries and even some of his idols. The company he founded in his Harvard dorm room is set to go public this Friday with an IPO that could value the company at $100 billion.
Despite the fact that he still rocks hoodies and t-shirts to all his meetings and informed future investors that he cares more about making a good product using "the hacker way" over making money, Zuckerberg has grown up a lot since Facebook launched in 2004. He's also done some pretty awesome badass things. Since everyone's focusing on the former, we decided to focus on the latter. Happy Birthday, Zuck!
10. The Real Zuckerberg Meets the Fake Zuckerberg on SNL
Date: 1/29/2011
After garnering a Best Actor Academy Award nomination for his role as Mark Zuckerberg in the 2010 hit The Social Network, Jessie Eisenberg was invited to host Saturday Night Live. But Lorne Michaels decided to turn things up a notch and invited the real Mark Zuckerberg, who had lambasted the movie for being wildly off-base, to swing by 30 Rock and meet his famous impersonator. The result was awkward as hell, but we give props to Zuck for being able to laugh at himself.
9. His Business Card Read I'm CEO...Bitch!"
Date: 2007
As Facebook was starting to get off the ground and the staff began taking meetings with real business professionals, Zuckerberg, according to David Kirkpatrick's The Facebook Effect, had to be careful which cards he handed out because he had two sets made. A traditional kind that had his name and his CEO title. And another which read: "I'm CEO…Bitch!" We're not sure to who he gave the latter.
8. Zuckerberg Meets Snoop Dogg
Date: 9/23/2011
To kick off the partnership between Facebook and Spotify, former Facebook president and Napster co-founder, Sean Parker, decided to throw a party with a performance from special guest Snoop Dogg. After rocking the stage with Daz Dillinger, Snoop kicked it backstage with Parker and Zuckerberg. Now, we don't know what went down, but knowing Snoop and Parker's proclivity for the green, we can make some pretty good guesses.
7. TIME's Person of the Year
Date: 12/15/2010
In December of 2010, at the age of 26 Mark Zuckerberg became TIME magazine's Person of the Year. According to the publication, Zuck was given the honor for "For connecting more than half a billion people and mapping the social relations among them, for creating a new system of exchanging information and for changing how we live our lives."
6. Zuckerberg Signs The Giving Pledge
Date: 12/9/2010
While most young rich dudes are contemplating which new car to buy or which island they want to charter a jet to next, Zuckerberg bossed up and signed up with for The Giving Pledge, a promissory group founded by Warren Buffet and Bill Gates which looks to get billionaires to pledge large parts of their net worth to charity instead of giving it away to heirs. At the time Zuck was worth around $6 billion, but now with the company's IPO just around the corner, that will nearly double.
5. Zuckerberg Buys Instagram without Telling Facebook Board
Date: 4/9/2012
One of the biggest acquisitions to happen so far in 2012 was Facebook's purchasing of Instagram for $1 billion in cash and stock. The move, which was Facebook's largest acquisition ever, was seen by some as genius and by other as ridiculous. The craziest part of the deal, however, was not the price, but the way in which it was done. According to the Wall Street Journal, Zuckerberg completed the billion-dollar deal in three days from his Palo Alto home without consulting with, or even telling, the Facebook board. Thanks to Zuck's 57% stake in the company, he can do such things without any repercussions, but for a company as large as Facebook, and one that's on pace to go public, moves like that are seen as unprofessional.
4. Zuckerberg Buys Out Movie Theater to Watch The Social Network
Date: 10/1/2010
What do you do when someone makes a movie about your life that you feel doesn't accurately depict your life? If you're Mark Zuckerberg, you chuckle, look at your bank statement, and rent out a a movie theater for your friends, family, and employees to watch The Social Network. That's exactly what happened when the David Fincher flick hit theaters.
3. Zuckerberg Gets Invited to Dinner with President Obama
Date: 2/17/2011
Before kicking his re-election campaign into gear, President Obama met with some Silicon Valley's top players at a private dinner. The dinner was meant to discuss job growth opportunities, as well as tax reform, a national broadband initiative, and a big education budget increase. In attendance were Steve Jobs, Google's former CEO Eric Schmid, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, Stanford president John Hennessy, and Mark Zuckerberg. Zuck was, by far, the youngest person in the room and was granted a seat right next to President Obama. If that's not bad-ass we don't know what is.
2. Zuckerberg Gives $100 Million to Newark Schools
Date: 2/23/2010
While Newark Mayor Cory Booker was traveling the country meeting with business executives in an attempt to raise money for his cities crumbling school system, he met with Mark Zuckerberg at a conference. The two hit it off so well that Zuckerberg, who was planning on starting an education foundation, decided to give Newark a massive donation of $100 million to help improve the school system. The donation came with some caveats that would force Gov. Chris Christie to give Booker more power in rebuilding the Newark school district. An all-around win.
1. Zuckerberg Builds Facemash, then The Facebook
Date: 10/28/2003
If you've seen The Social Network then you should know the story. During his sophomore year at Harvard, Zuckerberg, along with three of his classmates, built a website that illegally sourced student photos from online campus directories, placed them side-by-side, and allowed visitors to vote on who was hotter. The website was shut down by Harvard less than a week after it launched, and Zuckerberg was faced with possible expulsion. All charges were eventually dropped, but Zuckerberg would wind up dropping out of school a year later when earlier incarnations of Facebook began to take off.
