As we saw in the documentary, “Downloaded”, Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning eventually split as partners after Napster was shut down. Sean Parker became particularly successful after the shutdown with a network of $2.7 billion. Even without a college degree, he is one of the most successful self-made billionaires.
Parker was born in Herndon, Virginia and struggled with asthma throughout most of his childhood. His father, a U.S. government oceanographer started to teach him computer programming at the age of 7. When Parker was 15, the FBI became interested in him and he had to do community service with other teenage hackers. He also gained a CIA internship from getting one of the top honors at a computer science fair. After Napster shut down, Parker was left broke and forced to start over in the business world.
He shifted from an interest in music to the power of social networking. He launched Plaxo, an online address book and soon after discovered Facebook. Parker was able to meet with Mark Zuckerburg and then became Facebook’s founding president. He then became interested in Spotify, originally a Swedish music platform, and brought it to the US. He was apart of the Board of Directors until 2017.
Other than investing in other companies, Parker also launched his own foundation in 2015 with $600 million. In 2016, his foundation granted $250 million to establish the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. He also founded the Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy and Asthma Research in 2014.
Sources:
https://amp.businessinsider.com/images/55ba9a48371d22723a8b9424-750-563.jpg
https://content.fortune.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/sean-parker-weta-peter-jackson-e1568147823275.jpg
This post very concisely highlights the successes of Sean Parker after he left Napster. It is interesting to see how both Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker have decided to pursue the path of investment and entrepreneurship. It is difficult to see the two transforming their career from a passion in software engineering to the ruthlessly competitive investment field. However, if we only compare the income of these two jobs, software engineers have an average salary of 105k in the United States (much higher in the Silicon Valley), while angel investors are expected to have a net worth of at least $1 million and income of 200 to 300k per year. Is it all about the value of our currency in the end? Well, it seems that Sean Parker, at least, was able to find a way to pursue his passions through money. His many establishments exemplify his desire to help medical research. Perhaps that's where he is really able to derive utility.
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