The story of the Winklevoss twins
In February 2004, Mark Zucherberg launched Facebook, the social media site that would earn him billions of dollars.
It
turns out that he stole the idea and source code for Facebook from
three fellow Harvard University students, Divya Narendra, Cameron
Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss, by intentionally misleading them into
believing that he would help them build a social network called
HarvardConnection (which later became ConnectU).
In
2004 ConnectU filed a lawsuit against Facebook and Zucherberg, and in
2008 they reached a $65 million settlement. They weren’t satisfied with
this outcome, but had to live with it.
From
2008 - 2012, the Winklevoss twins took a break from the business world.
They took part in various rowing competitions, placing 6th in the
Beijing 2008 Olympics. They also got a pair of MBAs from the University
of Oxford. Tyler Winklevoss had this to say in 2008:
“At this point, we’ve been trying to relax, decompress, and take stock of the situation,” he said. “With respect to any other projects, just keeping my eyes and ears open to see what might come along. Sometimes these things just fall into your lap.”
While
Mark Zucherberg was getting filthy rich from Facebook, the twins were
biding their time and waiting for a good business opportunity.
In
2012 they found what they were looking for: Bitcoins. They invested $11
million of their share of the Facebook settlement into the
controversial crypto-currency. Since 2012 the value of the Bitcoin has
increased from $120 to almost $20,000. The Winklevoss twins have
invested in other ventures and now have a combined net worth of over $1
billion.
They’re still a long way off from
Mark Zucherberg’s net worth of $64 billion; however they may eventually
catch up to and even surpass him. While Zucherberg’s wealth is tied up
in a stagnant social media network, the Winklevoss twins are heavily
invested in the exciting and growing field of crypto-currencies.
The Winklevoss twins pulled themselves back in legendary fashion and showed the world that they are better than Zucherberg.
Success is the best revenge.