Mark Zuckerberg may be the creator of one of the most commonly used social media platforms on the internet, but that doesn’t mean that he’s the most beloved technology developer on the internet.
It seems like Zuckerberg is constantly getting pulled into another legal struggle for Facebook, but some people would go as far as to believe that Facebook doesn’t rightfully belong to Zuckerberg.
Facebook may not have ever become what it is today if not for the contributions of Mark Zuckerberg and other Harvard students.
Did Mark Zuckerberg Steal Facebook?
Mark Zuckerberg was accused of stealing the idea for Facebook from ConnectU.com, which involved three classmates and clients who wanted a social website for Harvard students.
After a lengthy legal battle that lasted years, Facebook ended up paying Zuckerberg’s ex-classmates $65 million between the three affected students.
There is no denying that Mark Zuckerberg was the one who created Facebook, but the idea came from Divya Narendra, Cameron Winklevoss, and his twin brother Tyler Winklevoss.
Although the Winklevoss twins were made out to be villains in Hollywood’s retelling of the creation of Facebook, The Social Network depicts the twins as much more villainous than they actually were.
Narendra was the roommate of the Winklevoss twins and had become friends while the trio was attending Harvard University.
The Winklevoss twins came from a wealthy family and were popular jocks on the Ivy League campus, making them the perfect opposite of the rebellious and nerdy Mark Zuckerberg.
When Narendra and the Winklevoss twins took Zuckerberg to court, Facebook’s legal team insisted that the other students didn’t have a strong enough idea to build an entire website.
Although the legal battle was harsh, Facebook did everything in its power to keep what happened under wraps.
There was little that Facebook could do when the ConnectU.com group’s legal team decided to celebrate the victory by stating that they had won a $65 million settlement against the social media tycoon.
The Winklevoss twins and Narendra were quick to shoot the law firm down, in hopes of keeping what happened quiet.
While some spectators assume that their hushing of Quinn Emmanuel was to remain on good terms with Facebook, others wonder if they thought further debates would ruin their chances in the technology and social media industries.
What Did The Winklevoss Twins Do After The Facebook Scandal?
Before Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss went to Harvard University, they loved being athletes above all else.
It was their competitive rowing abilities that had got the twins into Harvard University in the first place.
By 2004, they were leading the Harvard rowing team to victory at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association Regatta, which is a national rowing championship for men.
Shortly after being burned by Zuckerberg, the Winklevosses began studying business at the University of Oxford and continued to grow through their time at Oxford.
By 2011, the wealthy twins were ready for the London Olympics and began training in San Diego.
When the twins went to compete in Beijing, they were only able to place 6th while the Australian team won the gold medal.
When the Winklevoss twins were given their large sum of money from Facebook, they decided the best way to use the money was to invest in other companies.
Since Facebook had given them $45 million in stocks, the twins were sitting on $500 million when they decided to begin investing in Silicon Valley companies.
Although the twins thought it would be easy to find a stable investment, they found that Facebook was everywhere they looked, and every company they interviewed had the end goal of selling their product to Facebook.
If a company wanted to be able to sell to Facebook, they felt that having the Winklevoss name on their files would only hurt their chances of ever working with Zuckerberg.
It became a losing battle for twins until they got into Bitcoin.
Not only did the twins invest in Bitcoin, but they also built a platform called Gemini to act as a Bitcoin stock exchange.
This allowed them to become some of the first Bitcoin-based billionaires.
What Did Divya Narendra Do After The Facebook Scandal?
While the Winklevoss twins were making headlines and being seen as the stereotypical bad guys, their college friend and fellow ConnectU.com teammate Divya Narendra decided to take a quieter approach to his life after college.
After the Facebook scandal, Narendra began studying for his joint JD-MBA at Northwestern Law School and Kellogg.
He then began working on his own online idea, SumZero.
SumZero is a social media-inspired site that brings together innovative ideas and interested investors.
While working at a hedge fund in 2007, Narendra found that the technology used in the world of finance was often years behind what consumers used on a daily basis.
He felt that finding companies and ideas to invest in should be as easy as looking up an old friend on any social media platform.
The site promotes transparency for investors and innovators, allowing each side to know exactly what they’re getting into.
SumZero looks to make investing even easier for investors by considering what goes into the buy-side of investments.
Most investments are only considered from the sell-side because the innovators are normally the ones to present their information first and allow investors to decide if their project is worth the money the company is asking for.
SumZero allows investors to explain what they’re looking for and what kind of terms they are looking to accept.
When Narendra retires as the CEO of SumZero, he plans on becoming a full-time angel investor because he loves the feeling of helping entrepreneurs achieve their dreams and creating the products of the future.
Narendra also plans to spend much more of his time on his nonprofit work and wants to become a member of mission-driven ventures that may need a financial or legal advisor.
He’s earned a lifetime’s worth of money through Facebook and SumZero.
What Companies Has Winklevoss Capital Invested In?
Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss may have had some trouble finding companies to invest in as independent investors, but they’ve found a variety of successful businesses to support after forming Winklevoss Capital.
Winklevoss Capital prefers to invest in many different industries, including gaming, artificial intelligence, social media, education, bioscience, and most notably, crypto.
With this large range of businesses under their belt, the Winklevoss twins have managed to make millions.
Ada Diamonds is one of the businesses that the investment group has joined.
They create sustainable and conflict-free diamonds that are created in labs but still maintain the beauty of a naturally occurring diamond.
With the twins having a strong interest in health, they were incredibly intrigued by Belli Welli’s vision.
This company makes baked bars that are free of chemicals that are known to aggravate people’s stomachs.
Colossal Biosciences is looking to stop one of the most concerning problems on the planet: extinction.
Colossal hopes to bring back the Wooly Mammoth and other species that have been extinct for a long time.
Winklevoss Capital has even made its way into the world of medical marijuana after investing in the delivery service, Eaze.
They’ve also invested in the Health House, which combines rowing with strength training.
Although most of the investments that Winklevoss Capital makes have something to do with the twins’ interests, they do like to branch out of their comfort zone.
The best example of this is Kindbody, which is a technology-based company that helps women with gynecology, fertility, and other wellness services.
They’ve also made investments in childhood development companies such as Litnerd and Little Spoon.
Litnerd creates literacy workshops used by schools to help increase literacy levels among struggling students, and Little Spoon is a meal-plan company that focuses on your child’s growing nutritional needs.
Purchasing Nifty Gateway
Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss have always been on the hunt for the next greatest investment and knew that they had found something special when they discovered Nifty Gateway, which was developed by another pair of twins.
Much like the Winklevoss twins, the Cock Foster twins were innovative and always looking for what the next greatest investment could be.
With their love of technology and deep understanding of the world of NFTs, Griffin and Duncan Cock Foster co-founded Nifty Gateway in 2018.
The first iteration of Nifty Gateway was like PayPal for non-fungible tokens, NFTs.
Users could easily use their credit cards when making online purchases on websites such as CryptoKitties, OpenSea, or Axie Infinity.
After users purchased their NFTs, Nifty Gateway would then send the NFT to whatever blockchain wallet the user preferred.
When the Winklevoss twins purchased the website from the Cock Foster twins, they wanted to expand the features that the website offered.
By March of 2020, Nifty Gateway would expand to include buying and selling NFTs on the site.
It also allows users to display their collections on the website.
Adam Draper, who worked with the Cock Foster twins and the Winklevoss twins, found the twins’ similarities comical and thought the pairs should meet.
It was the perfect time for Draper to contact the Winklevoss twins about the Cock Foster twins because Tyler and Cameron wanted to get into the world of NFTs.
The Winklevoss twins purchased Nifty Gateway for an undisclosed amount in 2019, with the majority of the purchase being done in Bitcoin.
Nifty Gateway was quickly integrated into Gemini, the Winklevoss twin’s cryptocurrency company.
Although most NFTs on Nifty Gateway cost anywhere from $200 to $500, the most expensive piece sold on the site was sold for $10,500.
Troubles Brewing For Nifty Gateway
Although things seemed to be going well for Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss with Nifty Gateway, problems with the service began to arise in 2021.
The company was gaining more clients quickly and the amount of money being transferred has begun increasing rapidly.
Some people who have worked with the Winklevoss twins have claimed that their greed often gets ahead of their desire to actually make a change.
This became apparent to British art dealer Amir Soleymani, who was charged over $600,000 for art he never received or knew he was purchasing in the first place.
Soleymani decided to take Nifty Gateway to court after the company froze his account for not paying $650,000 for a piece of digital art that Soleymani didn’t know he was purchasing and didn’t even want.
Amir Soleymani had taken part in an art auction for the piece called Abundance by the digital artist known as Beeple, Mike Winkleman.
The piece went far above what Soleymani was willing to pay and he decided to back down at $650,000, and the winning bidder, Taylor Gerring, purchased the piece for $1.2 million.
Despite Soleymani finishing in third place in the auction, Nifty Gateway called him the next day and demanded that the art dealer pay the $650,000 due to the terms of the auction.
Soleymani told the company that he was not going to pay them for art he didn’t purchase, and they froze his digital wallet.
When Soleymani read the terms of the auction after receiving the call, he discovered that the terms stated that the first 100 finishers would have to pay out their losing bids for a group of pieces by Beeple.
Soleymani felt that the company had hidden those terms, and he wasn’t actually receiving what he paid for.
Do The Winklevoss Twins Really Share Homes?
Yes, the Winklevoss twins share homes and even co-own a BMW M3.
Even as adults, you will rarely see one Winklevoss twin without the other.
The only time that the twins have never done business together was when Mark Zuckerberg was meeting with them before their lawsuit.
Zuckerberg had only agreed to meet in private with the twins to discuss their concerns if only one of them attended the meeting, stating security reasons for why only one of the twins could talk with him.
The Winklevoss twins assumed that Zuckerberg was worried that they’d beat him up for what he had done and laughed between each other.
Cameron Winklevoss ended up being the twin to attend the meeting with Mark Zuckerberg.
Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss have been known to live in two different properties together, despite having separate real estate all over the country.
Although they don’t live in these homes anymore, they still own a Soho apartment and a Los Angeles home together.
The Winklevoss once owned a Soho penthouse apartment but ended up selling the property for $14.5 million in 2014.
The penthouse consisted of 4,300-square feet and 2,300-square feet of outdoor space.
The floors were made from Siberian white oak and the ceiling was adorned with a steel and glass skylight from Argosy.
You could step outside to the terrace for a 360-degree view of the skyscrapers below.
Since the property was sold, it has gone back on the market as a rental for $100,000 per month.
This high price tag comes from the location and all the high-tech features the penthouse has.
The Winklevoss twins also shared an 8,000-square-foot mansion for $18 million in 2012.
This Los Angeles mansion had an infinity pool, a six-car garage, and featured floor-to-ceiling windows.
Buying Virtual Real Estate
The Winklevoss twins have no problem sharing personal space, but they’ve proven that they’re ready for the next step of real estate.
Much like art and money, even real estate has made the jump to the digital world.
Tyler Winklevoss and Cameron Winklevoss decided to purchase digital land through The Sandbox, which is an NFT project where investors can purchase a section of land within the virtual world and use SAND tokens to purchase other NFTs and NFT-related goods.
With the twins also owning Nifty Gateway and Gemini, they are hoping to integrate their services more deeply into The Sandbox.
The Sandbox is unique because it also acts as a metaverse-like game and it has some of the most unusual players, such as The Smurfs, Care Bears, and Avenged Sevenfold.
Users are able to create their own avatars and walk around the strange, pixelated world.
Thanks to business connections that The Sandbox has made, you can find digital goods from brands such as Adidas, Atari, I, The Walking Dead, Gordan Ramsey’s Hell’s Kitchen, Snoop Dogg, and much more
Not only are users able to purchase land within the digital space that The Sandbox has created, but they can also make their own games, play games created by others, and get paid to create new products and experiences.
There is currently no land available for purchase at the moment, but players are more than free to play and create their own games on the platform.
The Sandbox may look like Minecraft in style and allow you to import your work from Minecraft to their servers, but it is actually more akin to the adult version of Roblox.
Those who want to get their foot in the door without purchasing land can apply to become a Sandbox creator for free.
How Accurate Was The Social Network?
Nobody knew who the Winklevoss twins or Divya Narendra were until the book The Social Network and the movie that followed soon after.
As Hollywood normally does, the creators exaggerated and changed the details of the real story to make it appear more interesting to audiences.
In the film, the Winklevoss brothers are portrayed as the antagonists of the story and displayed Zuckerberg as their bullied victim.
However, it was Zuckerberg who was causing trouble for the twins and Narendra.
All the ConnectU.com crew wanted was for Zuckerberg to use his computer skills to create a Harvard-based social media platform to discuss school-related topics after he had been caught creating a website that compared students’ physical attractiveness.
In The Social Network, the inappropriate website that Zuckerberg had created was specifically for women.
However, Vanity Fair has stated that both male and female student photos were used on Facemash.
According to Divya Narendra, Mark Zuckerberg was brought onto their team to fill in the missing gap of information that the team needed to create their dream project.
They knew that they wanted something like MySpace that used students’ Harvard emails to ensure they were real Harvard students.
Despite not all the details of the movie being accurate and his college friends being portrayed as antagonists, Narendra still thought that The Social Network was an entertaining movie.
He was shocked when he found out that Max Minghella was playing him in the movie because he thought they looked nothing alike.
Divya Narendra, Tyler Winklevoss, and Cameron Winklevoss had to fight for the recognition that they deserved, but the payout is going to last them a lifetime.
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