Sean Parker, who began his career as a computer hacker, proved his brilliance by co-founding the file-sharing service Napster. In 2004, he, together with Mark Zuckerberg, developed the social network Facebook. He became its founding president. In 2007, he participated in the creation of Causes to donate money to charity. 180 million people were registered in this application. Learn more at losangeles1.one.
In 2014, he introduced an initiative called Brigade. It is an online platform for civic participation. Parker is also the head and founder of the Economic Innovation Group. Learn more about the richest people in Los Angeles here.
Biography
Sean Parker was born on December 3, 1979. Despite complicated relationships with classmates and difficulties at school, Parker’s intelligence was hard to miss. The boy has been fond of reading since childhood. When he was 7, his father started teaching him computer programming on an Atari 800.
Sean Parker quickly plunged into the digital realm. In his teenage years, he paved his way into computer companies and organizations around the world. When Parker was 15, his hacking activities were noticed by the FBI. As a result, he had to perform community service with other young offenders at the local library.
Around this time, he met Sean Fanning, who was also 15 and a skilled hacker. They created an internet security company called Crosswalk, aimed at helping companies resist hacking attacks. Although the business didn’t achieve commercial success, it laid the foundation for their friendship and future partnership.
Napster Company
Having convinced his parents that he should postpone college, Parker together with his friend Fanning, created the file-sharing service Napster in 1999.
The service quickly gained popularity among melomaniacs. It attracted tens of millions of users in its first year and also became a target for the music industry, which considered the startup as a major threat to its business. Parker was eventually dismissed and the company had to close. He fell out of favor with the senior partners of Napster.
Social Networks
Long before the term “Web 2.0” became widespread, Parker was captivated by the power and capacity of social networks. With partners, he launched a new company, Plaxo. It was an online service that kept users’ address books updated. Parker came up with this idea. However, when daily management challenges arose, the founder disappeared and was soon ousted by other company executives.
During this time, Parker discovered Facebook, another new online service for college students. Enthralled by its potential, Parker met with the company’s founder, Zuckerberg. He soon appointed the 24-year-old entrepreneur as the company’s founding president.
But in 2005, Parker was detained for storing cocaine. Although no charges were ever filed, the incident was the main reason for his departure from Facebook. Parker’s role in this company was depicted in the movie The Social Network. The film tells about the creation of the company. Parker, played by Justin Timberlake, called the film “fantasy.”
Personal Life
On June 1, 2013, guests at the wedding ceremony of the King of Silicon Valley dived into the real world of the Lord of the Rings movie. The wedding of Sean Parker and his wife, Alexandra, undoubtedly entered history as one of the most beautiful and expensive events. The venue for the ceremony was the California forest of Big Sur with 500-year-old sequoia trees.
Guests entered through 6-meter gates that were adorned with the couple’s initials forged from iron. Decorative artists set up artificial bridges, waterfalls, a ruined stone castle, a 10-meter Celtic cross and two broken Roman columns lying at the altar under the largest tree in the forest. The attire for the guests was sewn by the costume designer of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Ngila Dixon. The cost of the event was not disclosed, but according to various estimates, it ranged from $4.5 to $10 million.
Among the guests were Sting with his wife, actresses Emma Watson and Olivia Munn, Twin Peaks star Kyle MacLachlan, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, the drummer of Metallica band Lars Ulrich, musician Sean Lennon (son of John Lennon), the attorney general of California Kamala Harris and California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom.
When the bride was handed the ring to put on Sean’s finger, it fell and got lost in the white rose petals that covered the altar. Alexandra’s father did not hesitate and gave his own ring to not interrupt the ceremony. Sean proposed to his girlfriend, singer Alexandra Lenas, after the birth of their daughter Winter in February 2012.
House in Los Angeles
Napster co-founder Sean Parker paid $55 million for Ellen DeGeneres’ nine-bedroom mansion in Los Angeles.
The TV host purchased the house for $40 million. Parker approached her with a proposal to buy out her mansion. The deal was signed in just eight days, leaving DeGeneres with a nice profit of $15 million.
Parker is known for spending a lot of money to get what he wants. He agreed to pay $2.5 million to settle with the California Coastal Commission because of the violation of environmental laws of California during his wedding.