Dustin Moskovitz is an American entrepreneur, better known as one of the co-founders of the popular social networking website Facebook. He along with Mark Zuckerberg, Andrew McCollum, Eduardo Saverin, and Chris Hughes co-founded the internet giant. Early on, he had 6 percent stockholding in the internet company and was thus a part owner. After raising capital, Facebook was valued in 2008 to about $50 billion. This meant that, on paper, Dustin was a billionaire with a wealth of nearly $12 billion.As per Forbes, Moskovitz was one of the youngest self-made billionaires in the world in 2011 with an estimated wealth of about $5.1 billion. This wealth was calculated on the basis of his Facebook stockholding of 2.34 percent.
Moskovitz left Facebook in 2008 and launched a new Internet company called Asana with Justin Rosenstein, an engineering manager at Facebook. Sean Parker put in $1.2 million into this new venture. Later in 2009, an investment deal of about $9 million was closed by them for the company.The company however has not achieved the same levels of fame and fortune as Facebook.
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The Personal Life of Dustin Moskovitz
Moskovitz was born on May 22, 1984 in Gainesville, Florida, in a Jewish family. He is younger than Zuckerberg by just 8 days. Dustin grew up in Ocala, Florida and attended the Vanguard High School where he graduated from the IB Diploma Program.Moskovitz then attended Harvard University where he was an economics major. In 2004, after 2 years at the University, he along with Zuckerberg took a year off and moved to Palo Alto, California. Soon he started working full-time on Facebook and thus became one of the 4 co-founders of the website as it is today.
Moskovitz does not lead the life of an ostentatious billionaire. Not much information is available about the cars that he owns or drives, or about his home. It is however known that Dustin is a charitable man and in involved in several philanthropic causes. He is of the firm belief that money should be put to good use and that there is no better way to spend money than using it to help others.
After launching his new company Asana, Moskovitz provided $10,000 to all his engineers. It was to be spent on upgrading and improving the equipment and machines at their desks. He also gave away a part of the riches that he made through Facebook to varied charities. Dustin is also reported to have signed ‘The Giving Pledge’ movement started by Warren Buffet, wherein he pledged to donate a majority of his wealth to charity.
Moskovitz is married to a Wall Street journal reporter named Cari Tuna.
Dustin Moskovitz and Facebook
Moskovitz along with the other founding members of Facebook conceptualized the social networking website in their dorm room at Harvard University in February 2004. It was originally known as thefacebook.com. The website was meant to be on online directory exclusive to just the students at Harvard. It was to act as an aid-tool for residential students to identify and find other residences as well as fellow members.
In June 2004, Moskovitz, along with Mark Z. and Hughes, moved to California to set up a new base for the website. They hired 8 new employees. Internet entrepreneur and investor Sean Parker also joined them after some months.
Moskovitz supervised the technical aspects of Facebook. He was the first CTO of Facebook and later the VP of engineering. As the head of the technical staff, Dustin was responsible for maintenance of the main architecture of the website as well as overseeing the mobile strategy and development of the company. Dustin was instrumental in the inception as well as the growth of website right from the time that Facebook was launched.He had a 7.6 percent shareholding in the company. It was liquidated by Moskovitz after the announcement of Facebook’s IPO.
Dustin Moskovitz: Life after Facebook
Moskovitz made the announcement of his intention to leave Facebook and start a new internet company called Asana on 3rd October 2008.
Dustin also invested heavily in ‘Path,’ a mobile photo-sharing website. Its owner was David Morin, a former member of the core Facebook team. It has been reported that Dustin’s advice was instrumental in influencing Morin’s final decision to reject a buyout offer of $100 million from Google for the company ‘Path,’ in Feb. 2011.
Dustin Moskovitz – Trivia
- Moskovitz and his wife Cari founded a charitable foundation called ‘Good Ventures,’ in 2011. The following year the organization announced that it had arrived at a close partnership with ‘GiveWell,’ a charity evaluator.
- The role of Moskovitz in the Hollywood film, ‘The Social Network,’ was portrayed by actor Joseph Mazzello. Dustin has stated that the movie overemphasized on things and events that did not matter and understated or completely overlooked the people who were vital to the growth of Facebook.