

Ask HN: Does anyone do business with the VC that stitched up the Facebook guy? - andrewstuart

"The Social Network" movie shows how the VC's put together a contract that effectively took almost all the shares away from Facebook's co-founder.<p>Does anyone do business with that VC now?  If yes, then why?  Surely that's the biggest dirty deal in the history of technology startups?
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smanek
Peter Thiel (the 'don' of the paypal mafia) was the first outside investor, to
the best of my knowledge. He is still a very active and respected angel.

Diluting Eduardo Saverin was almost certainly Zuckerberg's doing (or at least
he didn't object), since Zuck had (and still has) board control.

Don't feel too bad for Saverin though. He sued, got ~5% of the company, and is
now a billionaire at FB's current valuation.

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garrettgillas
Eduardo Saverin made more money from being "screwed out" of Facebook than
almost anyone on earth will ever make in their entire lives (About 2.3
billion). Yeah, I feel really bad for him.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduardo_Saverin>

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callmeed
These companies do

<http://www.foundersfund.com/portfolio.php>

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anonaccount1234
Peter Thiel is one of the biggest investors in the industry. And while I am
sure the events didn't go down exactly as they did in the movie, I am sure he
had no problem screwing someone out of all those shares. Unfortunately, that's
business. Everyone is out for themselves.

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iuguy
Perhaps this is one of the biggest reasons not to take funding if you can
afford it. To quote wargames, the best way to win is not to play.

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l0nwlf
> To quote wargames, the best way to win is not to play.

How is this relevant here ?

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alextingle
They're all like ferrets in a bag.

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haploid
I think you should do a little more research into the actual events of the
Saverin/Facebook story. Ben Mezrich's book, and Aaron Sorkin's writing are
particularly fictionalized when it comes to this aspect of the story.

May I suggest "The Facebook Effect" by David Kirkpatrick for a slightly more
legitimate history of the company.

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tapiwa
Totally recommend that book too.

The fully story is a bit more complicated than you can squeeze into a
hollywood movie.

Well, you can say the same about the book, but you do have to start somewhere.

