Playing in a theater near you is probably "The Social Network". Its definitely a popular choice in Zagreb these days. I saw it and found alot of content useful and relatable to our course in Entrepreneurship. If you watched it, how can you connect it to anyone or a combination of the recurring themes we are discussing around background, idea generation, marketing, operations, finance and results/personal insights? Leave your comments below and lets deconstruct it for educational purposes.Monday, November 8, 2010
What did you think of the Social Network?
Playing in a theater near you is probably "The Social Network". Its definitely a popular choice in Zagreb these days. I saw it and found alot of content useful and relatable to our course in Entrepreneurship. If you watched it, how can you connect it to anyone or a combination of the recurring themes we are discussing around background, idea generation, marketing, operations, finance and results/personal insights? Leave your comments below and lets deconstruct it for educational purposes.
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I looked the movie and really liked. I agree with you when you said that can be applied to this class because these young people who have created Facebook are successful young entrepreneurs. Personally I do not know any young person who has achieved huge success as a student, but I really like what the movie shows, how man can succeed without a strong financial background, if has a great idea. I was particularly impressed when I saw Eduardo Saverin, co-founder of Facebook, an algorithm to create a social network writes on the window of student room at Harvard, where they originated the idea, and Facebook is ultimately created. The idea was great.Facebook did not advertise too much because Mark felt that it was not cool, but it achieved its success through word of mouth advertising. People who used it were enthusiastic and invited friends to join them. I should note that the initial capital amounted to Facebook is only $ 1000, and invested by Eduardo Saverin. Later, for further work should invest another 18 000 dollars, but what is interesting is the fact that the most popular social network ever, established in the student room and a capital of less than 20 000 dollars, now is available billions. Mark Zuckerberg is one of the the most famous and richest men today, and became the youngest person to reach the Forbes list.
ReplyDeleteThe film is great. It's very intriguing and exciting.
ReplyDeleteFrom the entrepreneurships point of view the film is very connected to the entrepreneurial elements such as background, idea generation etc. The background is very important for the creation of Facebook because without the knowledge that Zuckerberg has I wouldn't be writing this. He had all the computer/programming skills to make something like Facebook, but the idea generation began when he broke up with his girlfriend and created 'the girl rating site' and continued to built when he met the Winklevoss brothers. The financing started with Eduardo Saverin's money, and then after with the help of Sean Parker they got half a million dollars. Sean Parker was the 'main man' for marketing and he was excellent at it. All the operations were planned and created by Zuckerberg with a help of Sean Parker. Sean Parker said that 'the' from 'The Facebook' should be removed because it's 'clean' that way. The result is obvious. The Facebook is a multibillion-dollar business that is constantly growing and it will have an even bigger imapct on people in the future.
This movie definitely enters my top 10 list of favourite movies. In it I recognized a lot of things that can be linked with the course Entreprenuership. I will comment on those that struck me as the most interesting.
ReplyDeleteThe background of this guy was, and probably still is, that of a nerd, who doesn`t have a single friend in the world. He had Eduardo Saverin as a friend and then he betrayed him. But this same guy managed to build a social network with over 500 million members. This tells me that you don`t necesarily have to be a guy with lots of connections to succeed as an entreprenuer, contrary to a popular belief. What you do need is a genius idea. And if you don`t have it, you can steal it from someone else, as Mark Zuckerberg did with his. This is not uncommon with entrepreneuers, as both Bill Gates and Larry Ellison founded their own companies based on someone elses ideas. If you don`t have the money, this is also not a problem. You can have your friends invest in your company and then later dillute their ownership share, once you have no further use of them. Mark did this also. A large part of his story reminds me of the good old days of Russian gangster capitalism of the 1990`s. And like the Russians, Mark Zuckerberg got away with almost everything, and only got „a speeding ticket“ in settlement costs. But he did it in the 21st century in the United States. And this is what surprises me.
What separates Mark Zuckerberg from the most is that he had a vision towards which he led his company. He didn`t even view it as a business in the beginning. He didn`t know what it was, and into what it could develop. He only had this idea that people want to connect, that they want to know what their friends are doing, and that dating and relationships are the most important things in the lives of most people. Because of that he didn`t want to fold his cards too quickly and start advertising, as this would ruin the coolness of the company. This was probably the most important decision that he ever made.
If we viewed this movie from the point of new venture formation, then I would have to say that Facebook arose from his desire to be someone else. He wanted to row crew. He wanted to be popular with people so he could be admitted into the final club, and so that he could be with the girl that he liked. He could`t do none of this on his own, he needed help, and so he had founded Facebook. For me, the thing that is important in all of this is that he was aware of his deficiencies, he was aware of his strenghts, and he found a way to transform his deficiencies into strenghts by using his strenghts. He did this while being totally socially inept, and he proved that you only needed one thing in life in which you are good, and that when that thing turns into a passion, you can build your whole life around it, compensating with it for those other areas where you lack strength.
Marko Prka
I loved the movie and I am impressed how facebook developed. But I had bad impression on facebook founder. It seemed that he was snobby and very arrogant but with big self esteem . He wanted to take all credits for him self. For me best character in this movie is Eduardo. He was only true friend of Mark. Maybe Mark isn't great person but if we are talking about computers he is genus. I can say he make one of the biggest and most popular sites in world. Today facebook has over 557 000 000 users all around globe. Movie showed us that his private life isn't that successful as his business life. I recommend to everybody to go and watch this movie because is interesting and it is showing how began life of most popular todays thing called FACEBOOK.
ReplyDeleteBest regards
Stipe Eškinja
I saw the Social Network two days in a row on
ReplyDeleteit`s first week in Croatia and I think that
the movie is very good.Not as good as
Inception though :).When I think about entrepreneurship I think about business, money, professional life.None of those can be related to Mark Zuckerberg in the period that the movie is covering.For me real entrepreneurs are Eduardo and Sean but on a different levels.Mark just got lucky in the atempt to compenzate for the lack of his social skills and incapability to have any kind of a normal relationship with a girl or a friend.He is egocentric and without any intereset for anything else but his image.With or without Winklevoss brothers he would come up with a same concept for a social network because he was desperate for it.The key moment was his break-up.That was the trigger for everything he has done from that point on.Even the betrayal od Eduardo did`t happen beacuse Mark planned that (at least I think so).It happened because he can`t put himself in "a friend mode" or think about the
business he`s running.That`s why Eduardo
tells to the lawyers that Mark needs to be protected.Eduardo was backstabbed just because Mark doesn`t care about what is happening aroun him.Sean runs facebook while Mark just wants to make impossible for his ex to ignore him when facebook makes a big boom.For me Mark is just a social outcast with a great programming skill.In the begining Eduardo is the entrepreneurial force with the financing and iniciative to start advertising and
make profits.Later Sean brings to the table what Facebook needs by thinking "outside the box".He can see the potential of Facebook and has the knowledge how reach it.Entrepreneurial minds (Sean and Eduardo) have reached their true goals (money and success).Mark didn`t.In the end his friend request won`t be accepted.
Mark doesn`t deserve Facebook,Sean (even he is in a way a devil on Mark`s shoulder) and Eduardo do.
Ivan Grenko
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ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this movie a lot! In particular, relying on people with experience in the industry is important but you must know who you are getting into business with, as Mark Zuckerberg learns eventually (but at the expense of having a falling out with his closest friend). However, it can also be argued that were it not for that sketchy contact, the finances may never have been raised for Facebook seeing as his best friend (who was pursuing investors in New York) had no success. I also liked Mark Zuckerberg's approach of not selling out to advertising right away and maintaining creative control of the outlook of the webpage. The idea generation was a result of being a part of the life of his target audience and taking cues from everyday life.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with Ivan that Mark does not deserve Facebook. He was the core individual in the idea generation stage who put all the pieces together. His approach may not be laudable, but Facebook was his baby more than Sean or Eduardo's.
- Ali Saleem.
After reading my post for the second time I agree that my statement about Mark not deserving Facebook is far-fetched. It`s his idea, his creation and he kept it "cool" when that was crucial. I just don`t like his character in the movie (although it`s fun to watch him) so I exaggerate in criticism.
ReplyDeleteIvan Grenko
I didn't like the movie, maybe it's my subjective view. I refuse to believe that some kids from Harvard came to idea that makes billions of dollars. Or maybe I'm just jealous. I spend a lot of time thinking about some similar ideas, about new Facebook, Napster, Twitter, Google, Internet or else. Aim is not the money, it's to make something new to be recognized. My background is not much different from their. I'm student, I don't have a lot of money to invest, but with good idea I would find it. His idea came as set of circumstances, break up, brothers, friends and so on. He is not a genius, he even cheated on his best friend. And the worst thing he is not ashamed to film it and show the hole world that he's a traitor. I'm not thrilled about him.
ReplyDeleteMarko Pavic
Well the movie is pretty cool, watching it I though where the hell did I miss, why I’m not super geek to come to that idea, or am I to lazy for such a thing ☺
ReplyDeleteWell, thinking about it I found many things I have that Mark Z doesn’t have so probably I should look in other entrepreneurial direction.
Concerning the background of Mark Z. we can see that he was hard worker he spend long hours doing what he enjoyed to do, his self-confidence was super high, he was quick and wise thinker and he was driven by personal success.
Idea generation was made with no planning, everything started with love problems as many situation start, we all become pretty active in these situation, so Mark Z did to, though he started from his disappointment and revenge to his girlfriend, creating website to rate attractiveness of female on Hardware, where he hacked into databases and downloaded pictures and names of all female students. As he crashed Hardware system he was brought to attention of 2 brothers and their business partner, where his idea got opportunity to develop. Further idea development was not shown in movie except example of relationship status on facebook.
Marketing – Mark didn’t even plan to expand website but love obviously lead him to development. In the movie Mark have met his ex girlfriend in the pub where he realize she didn’t knew about facebook site, and the main reason is that she was not Hardware student. Realizing that, Mark. Z decided to expend the site to more schools. So what can be better marketing then that? Putting social website on use to verity of schools. Of course that was not it, expansion continued by meeting Parker who was key for further contacts that have invested in further development.
Operation and finance varied over the time. At the beginning it was invested 1000 $, but credit for further investments took Parker with his portfolio of successful contacts. Facebook have change its name many times from FaceMashe, The Facebook, and final word had Parker with simple name everybody known Facebook.
Its important to mention that idea its not enough, as we all know and have seen on these example its needed more then one person to realize idea. In my opinion contacts are the most important thing we have to have, after of course having a brilliant idea.
I watched the film. and the film is really excellent. Shows how the largest social network created in the world (facebook) The film is definitely one of the most intriguing films in a long time.
ReplyDeleteThe founder of this network is Mark Zuckerberg youngest billionaire in history. He was in his room designed by page and his idea was that this site is intended for friends which are known to make contacts,send the photos etc...
when this page appeared on the internet then it has gained thousands of users. When he realized how's count, his vision was that these social networks linking one days everyone in the world and it is a reality today. Facebook has over 500 million users from all over the world.
The film actually shows the founder as a not-so-positive person, because establishment of the network was indeed a huge milestone, that brought with him a lot of negative things.
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ReplyDelete