Sean Parker’s incredible life: from teenage hacker to Napster maverick, Facebook billionaire and ‘party boy’ portrayed by Justin Timberlake in The Social Network
- The FBI tracked down a teenage hacker called Sean Parker who would go on to co-found Napster and lead Facebook; now he boasts a US$2.7 billion net worth
- After introducing millions to illegal downloads, he invested early in Spotify, and married Alexandra Lenas in a US$4.5 million Lord of the Rings-themed ceremony
Sean Parker found massive success at an incredibly young age.
At 19, he co-founded Napster, a file-sharing service that would change how the world consumes music.
The 41-year-old, whose net worth is estimated to be about US$2.7 billion, hasn’t slowed a bit: he donates millions to philanthropic causes – and political ones – and lives an expensive lifestyle.
Here’s how Parker got his start, ended up at Facebook, and became a billionaire.
Parker was born in Herndon, Virginia, a city right outside Washington, DC
When he was in second grade, his dad taught him how to program on an Atari 800 computer. By the time Parker was a teenager, he was able to hack into universities and companies. He once hacked into a Fortune 500 company, but his dad confiscated his keyboard before he could log out. The FBI tracked him using his ISP, but since he was a minor, he was only sentenced to community service.
Parker co-founded the file-sharing service Napster in 1999, when he was only 19 years old. Napster became one of the fastest-growing businesses of all time, as well as one of the most controversial. Parker and his co-founder, Shawn Fanning, are often credited with revolutionising the music industry.