Sean Parker is an American entrepreneur who is known for co-founding a file-sharing computer service Napster and serving as the first president of Facebook. He also co-founded Plaxo (an online address book); Causes (a civic technology app and website for campaigning ); Airtime.com (a group video chat app for iOS); and Brigade (a civic technology platform).
He is the Founder and Chairman of his philanthropic firm, the Parker Foundation. He ranked 380 on Forbes 400 (2022) and 1,096 on the Forbes 2022 list of the world’s billionaires with a net worth of $2.8 billion. Here is Sean Parker’s Biography, Personal Life, Education Professional life, Entrepreneurship, and Philanthropic life.
Sean Parker – Biography
| Name | Sean Parker |
|---|---|
| Born | December 3, 1979 |
| Birthplace | Herndon, Virginia, U.S. |
| Age | 42 |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Oakton High School, Chantilly High School |
| Profession | Entrepreneur, Investor |
| Position | President of Facebook, Chairman of Parker Foundation, Managing Partner at The Founders Fund |
| Founder at | Parker Foundation |
| Co-founder of | Napster, Airtime, Causes, Brigade |
| Net worth | $2.8 billion (Forbes 2022) |
| Board member of | Spotify, Yammer |
| Father | Bruce Parker |
| Mother | Diane Parker |
| Marital Status | Married (2013) |
| Spouse | Alexandra Lenas |
| Daughter | Winter Victoria Parker |
| Son | Zephyr Emerson Parker |
Sean Parker – Personal Life
Sean Parker – Education
Sean Parker – Professional Life
Sean Parker – Co-founder of Napster
Sean Parker – Co-founder of Plaxo
Sean Parker – Co-founder of Brigade Media
Sean Parker – Philanthropist
Sean Parker – Personal Life
Sean was born to Diane and Bruce Parker, who was a U.S. government oceanographer and Chief Scientist at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). His mother, Diane Parker was a TV advertising broker.
He likes programming and hacking since his early teens. Sean was once convicted because he tried to hack a network of a Fortune 500 company and FBI agents tracked the 16-year-old boy through his IP address. He was sentenced to community service owing to his juvenility.
In 2013, he married Alexandra Lenas, who is a singer-songwriter. The couple has two children namely Winter Victoria Parker and Zephyr Emerson Parker.
Sean Parker – Education
Sean completed his formal education at Oakton High School, in Virginia and later at Chantilly High School. At school, he used to spend most of his time in the computer lab and practicing coding. Thus, he soon became a passionate programmer and used to intern at companies while studying in his high school.
He used to write codes for startup companies. He worked as an intern for Mark Pincus for his startup FreeLoader. He further completed his graduation in 1998. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) recruited him after seeing his winning potential at the Virginia state computer science fair for developing a Web Crawler.
Baishali Das Adhikari
Sean Parker – Professional Life
While studying in his senior year of high school, he earned more than $80,000 a year through internships and projects. He convinced his parents to let him skip college and pursue a career as an entrepreneur. He was an avid reader and believed in self-learning.
He is also the managing partner at the Founders Fund, a venture capital fund founded by Peter Thiel. While working there, he invested in a Swedish streaming music service, Spotify to share Napster’s music legally. He also established a philanthropic firm named, Parker Foundation.
Megha Rani
Sean Parker – Co-founder of Napster
At age 15, Sean met a 14-year-old boy Shawn Fanning through the internet. Both of them fused over topics like theoretical physics and hacking. After two years, they founded Napster, a free file-sharing service for music.
Sean raised $50,000 and launched it in June 1999. Napster had 10 million users within a year but it was opposed by the recording labels, the Recording Industry Association of America, the heavy metal band Metallica and a few others.
Eventually, the lawsuits from several industries did not allow him to run Napster. However, Napster is considered the fastest-growing business of all time and it revolutionized the music industry. It is believed through some reports that Napster is an antecedent to iTunes.
Sean Parker – Co-founder of Plaxo
Sean Parker launched an online address book and social networking service, Plaxo in November 2002. It was initially a social networking tool, which would later influence the growth of companies like LinkedIn, Zynga, and Facebook.
Plaxo grew with 20 million users and became the first-ever brand to use viral marketing in its launch. In 2004, he was driven out of the company’s financiers, Sequoia Capital and Ram Shriram. It is said that he exited by allegedly hiring private investigators to follow him.
Sean Parker – Co-founder of Brigade Media
Sean announced his new startup Brigade in April 2014. The platform was made with an aim of civic management, to counter a lack of political engagement and interest in all levels of government across America. He serves as the Chairman of the Brigade with an initial round of personal funding of $9.3 million. Brigade acquired an online platform for social impact and political activism, Causes in 2014.
Sarika Anand
Sean Parker – Philanthropist
Sean is an active Philanthropist and has assiduously donated to cancer research, global public health, and civic engagement. He even pledged $24 million to create the Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy Research at Stanford. He made a $10 million grant to create the Sean N. Parker Autoimmune Research Laboratory at UCSF.
He established Parker Foundation and declared in June 2015 to contribute $600 million to launch the organization to approach large-scale challenges, including, insight, capital, science and technology, organization building, and public policy.
He further donated $250 million to establish Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. He serves as a Board member of the Obama Foundation, Global Citizen, Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, Parker Foundation, and Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
Manav Makhija
Conclusion
Sean Parker is recognized as a genius and credits his college education to the establishment of Napster, through which he eventually became competent in intellectual property law, corporate finance, and entrepreneurship. He further co-founded ventures like Plaxo, Airtime, Brigade, and Causes. He was the first investor at Facebook and became its president after five years of its establishment.
FAQs
Who is Sean Parker?
Sean Parker is an American entrepreneur who is known for co-founding Napster, a file-sharing computer service.
Which companies has Sean Parker founded?
Sean Parker also co-founded an online address book – Plaxo, an online campaigning platform – Causes, a group video chat app – Airtime.com, and a civic technology platform – Brigade Media.
What was Sean Parker’s role on Facebook?
He was the first president of Facebook. Sean Parker’s fortune stems from his brief tenure, at age 24, as Facebook’s president.
Is Sean Parker still part of Facebook?
After his brief stint as Facebook’s president, he returned to the music industry, investing early in Spotify and serving on its board until 2017. Parker began tinkering with a social network focused on politics in 2015 and has mainly focused his work on the political arena in the last few years.
Where is Sean Parker now?
Parker is now a venture capital investor and philanthropist. Parker’s interest in music led him to invest in Spotify in 2010. He left the Board of Directors in June 2017.