Sean Parker Success Story

He ran into trouble, when at the age of sixteen, he was caught by the FBI, when he had logged into the network of Fortune 500 and was unable to logout. Since he was not an adult, he was sent for community service. While in school, he managed to convince the school administration to consider the time he spent coding in the computer lab, as a foreign language class.

During his school days, he had interned for Mark Pincus. On completing his Graduation in 1998, he was recruited by the C.I.A. Parker missed college to become an entrepreneur, and he sees Napster as his learning ground.

Career

Parker along with Shawn Fanning co-founded Napster, a free file-sharing service for music. Napster was launched in 1999, becoming an instant hit among its users. Unfortunately, though, Napster saw some rough weather, when the Recording Industry Association of America filed a lawsuit against it, forcing it to shut down.

Not one to get daunted, in the year 2002, Parker launched Plaxo, a social networking service. Later, it was integrated with Microsoft Outlook. Parker’s professional life has many a pitfalls! Even though, he co-founded Plaxo, he was asked to leave the company, by its financers.

His next career move was Facebook, which he joined in 2004 as its founding President following his meeting with Mark Zuckerberg. Once again, his luck took a turn for the worst, when Parker was arrested for possession of cocaine, resulting in the Facebook investors pressurizing him to step down from the position of President.

A tough nut to crack, Parker then invested in Spotify, a Swedish streaming music service. Presently, he is one of the board members. Paving the path ahead, Parker announced a joint venture between Spotify and Facebook at its f8 conference.

In 2011, Parker once again established contact with Shawn Fanning and founded Airtime. Known people like, Ron Conway, Michael Arrington and Ashton Kutcher, invested in Airtime. Parker, himself invested in WillCall, an undertaking that enables its customers to organize and pay for concerts using their handsets. This was in the year 2013.

Heights

Parker was the brain behind Facebook’s clean user interface and its photo-sharing function. Parker’s connection with Facebook was depicted in the movie The Social Network. His role was played by Justin Timberlake. Presently, he is on the board of directors for Spotify, Votizen.

He has invested in The People’s Operator in 2014, which donates 10% of the company’s profit for philanthropic activities. In 2014, there was news that Parker would take over as CEO and Chairman for Brigade Media.

Personal Life

Parker got engaged to Alexandra Lenas in 2011. Lenas gave birth to Parker’s daughter in 2013, and the same year, the couple got married. The wedding was a very extravagant affair. In 2014, she gave birth to their second child.  In 2005, Sean Parker was arrested on suspicion of possession of cocaine, but was not charged.

Achievements

Parker has appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon as a guest in 2011. He has also featured on the cover of Forbes 400 issue. Moreover, his profile appeared in Vanity Fair. Parker is the host for The TechFellow Award that annually gives 20 entrepreneurs $100,000 each to invest in startups.

Sean Parker Speech on Disrupting Philanthropy