Mark Pincus

Mark Pincus
Born Mark Jonathan Pincus
(1966-02-13) February 13, 1966
Chicago, Illinois
Residence San Francisco
Nationality American
Citizenship United States
Alma mater B.S. University of Pennsylvania
M.B.A. Harvard University
Occupation Executive Chairman at Zynga (formerly CEO [1] and Chief Product Officer)[2][3]
Net worth Increase US$1.54 billion (February 2018)[4]
Spouse(s) Alison Gelb 2008
Children 3

Mark Jonathan Greg Pincus (born February 13, 1966)[5] is an American Internet entrepreneur known as the founder of Zynga, a mobile social gaming company. Pincus also founded the startups Freeloader, Inc., Tribe Networks, and Support.com;[6] founded and launched an incubator, SuperLabs, later acquired by Zynga;[7] and co-founded the political movement, Win the Future.[8] Pincus served as the CEO of Zynga until July 2013, then again from 2015 to 2016.[9]

Pincus was named 2009 "CEO of the Year"[10] at The Crunchies technology awards[11] and a year later was named Founder of the Year at the 2010 ceremony.[12] Zynga is considered to be the pioneer of the social gaming industry.[13] Within four years after Pincus founded Zynga, the company had gone public with a $1 billion IPO.[14]

Early life and background

Pincus was born into a Jewish family[15] in Chicago and raised in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood. He is the son of Donna (née Forman) and Theodore Pincus.[16][17] His father was a business columnist and public relations adviser to CEOs and politicians[18] and his mother was an architect.[19]

Pincus attended Francis W. Parker School from kindergarten through 12th grade and graduated in 1984.[20] He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania earned in 1988[21] and an MBA from Harvard Business School,[22] where he founded the Communications Club with Sherry Coutu.[23]

Career

Financial services

Before he became an entrepreneur, Pincus worked in venture capital and financial services for six years. Pincus spent two years as a financial analyst for Lazard Freres & Co. after graduating from Wharton. After that time, he moved to Hong Kong, where he served as a Vice President for Asian Capital Partners for two years.[24]

He returned to the United States in order to attend Harvard Business School (HBS) where he was a contemporary of Chris Hohn, Guy Spier[25] and Chris Shumway.[26] He graduated in 1993[27] and also spent a summer as an associate for Bain & Co. in 1992.[28]

After Pincus graduated from Harvard Business School, he took a job as a manager of corporate development at Tele-Communications, Inc., which is now AT&T Cable. A year later, he joined Columbia Capital as Vice President, where he led investments in new media and software startups in Washington, D.C. for a year.[29][26]

Entrepreneur

Freeloader

In 1995, Pincus launched his first startup, Freeloader, Inc., a web-based push technology service which was acquired seven months later by Individual, Inc., for $38 million.[30]

Support.com

He then started his second company, Support.com, in August 1997. As Chairman and CEO, Pincus built the company into a leading provider of service and support automation software. The company went public in July 2000.[31] In 2002, the company changed its name from Support.com to SupportSoft, Inc.[32]

Tribe.net

In 2003, at age 37, Pincus founded his third startup, Tribe.net, an early social network.[33] Tribe.net partnered with major local newspapers and was backed by Guy Spier, The Washington Post, Knight Ridder Digital, and Mayfield Fund. In 2007, Cisco Systems acquired the core technology assets of Tribe.net to develop a social networking platform for its digital media services group.[34]

In 2003, Pincus and Reid Hoffman purchased the Six Degrees patent, a broad, sweeping patent that describes a social network service that is the heart of social networks from the extinct Sixdegrees.com company for $700,000.[35][36]

Investing

Pincus was a founding investor in Napster, Facebook, Friendster, Snapchat, Xiaomi and Twitter.[37][38] In 2015, Pincus invested in the nootropics company HVMN (formerly Nootrobox),[39][40][41] man-made diamond company Diamond Foundry,[42] and in 2014 automated investment service firm Wealthfront,[43] among others.[44]

Zynga

See main article: Zynga

In July 2007 Pincus founded his fourth company, Zynga Inc.[45][46][47][48] In 2011, Pincus took the company public with a $1 billion IPO.[49] Pincus served as CEO of the company from 2007 to 2013.[50] On July 1, 2013, it was confirmed that Don Mattrick, the former president of Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft, was to succeed Pincus as CEO.[51] Pincus also stepped down from his role as chief product officer to focus on his role as chairman of the board, the company announced in April 2014.[3]

Pincus returned to the role of CEO of Zynga in April 2015.[52] On March 7, 2016, Pincus stepped down as CEO, but continued his association with Zynga as Executive Chairman of the Board with Frank Gibeau in the role of CEO.[53]

On November 9, 2009, Pincus said, "I did every horrible thing in the book, too, just to get revenues right away. I mean we gave our users poker chips if they downloaded this Zwinky toolbar which was like, I don't know, I downloaded it once and couldn't get rid of it,".[54] Pincus noted that after offering the Zwinky toolbar, he and his team decided to remove it because it was a "painful experience."[55] Zynga also announced in November 2009 that it would take steps to remove scams from its games, a widely reported issue at the time. In a 2009 blog post Pincus wrote that Zynga had earlier faced an F rating with the better business bureau but was able to raise its score to a B+ after improving customer support efforts. As of September 2017, Zynga had an A+ rating with the better business bureau.[56][57][58]

Start-ups

In 2014 Pincus started SuperLabs, an incubator to fund startups. Zynga acquired SuperLabs in 2015.[59][60]

In 2017, Pincus, alongside Reid Hoffman and Adam Werbach, launched Win the Future, a movement within the Democratic Party.[61][62]

Philanthropy and community service

Presidio Trust

Pincus is a member of the board of the Presidio Trust, a federal agency that operates and maintains the Presidio as part of the Golden Gate Recreation Area.[63] He was appointed to the board by President Obama in 2017.[64]

Zynga.org

In October 2009, Pincus started Zynga.org, which is "committed to transforming the world through virtual social goods."[65] Zynga.org has since raised more than $20 million[66] for more than 50 international nonprofits[67][68] by occasionally selling virtual goods for charitable causes.[69]

On March 11, 2011, Zynga announced that 100 percent of the proceeds from the purchase of virtual goods from more than seven of its games would go toward Japan's Save the Children Earthquake Emergency Fund.[70][71] During the 2012 holiday season, Zynga.org partnered with Toys for Tots in its largest charitable campaign not related to disaster relief. The campaign raised $745,000, with 100 percent of the purchase price of certain virtual goods going to Toys for Tots.[66]

Personal life

In 2008, Pincus married Alison Gelb. She went on to found One Kings Lane, a furniture and home accessories sales website that was sold to Bed Bath & Beyond in 2016. They have three children, twin girls and a boy, and live in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco. In March 2017, Alison Gelb Pincus filed for divorce citing "irreconcilable differences" and challenged the validity of their prenuptial agreement.[72]

Pincus spends his time away from work with his daughters, cycling,[73] surfing, playing soccer[74] and doing yoga.[75]

References

  1. ↑ Takahashi, Dean (March 1, 2016). "Zynga names ex-EA mobile exec Frank Gibeau as its CEO". venturebeat.com. Retrieved October 27, 2017.
  2. ↑ "Zynga Names Don Mattrick Chief Executive Officer". company.zynga.com. 2013-07-02.
  3. 1 2 King, Rachel (April 23, 2014). "Zynga's latest unraveling: Pincus out as product chief". zdnet.com. Retrieved April 25, 2014.
  4. ↑ "Mark Pincus". Forbes. 4 February 2018. Retrieved 4 February 2018.
  5. ↑ "So What Do You Do, Mark Pincus, CEO of Zynga?". mediabistro.com. 16 September 2009. Retrieved 23 June 2010.
  6. ↑ Miguel Helft (July 24, 2010). "Will Zynga Become the Google of Games?". New York Times. Retrieved 2010-07-24. A serial entrepreneur, he sold his first company, Freeloader, an early Internet broadcast service, for $38 million, and took public his second, a business software maker called Support.com.
  7. ↑ "Zynga Acquires Mark Pincus's Incubator, Superlabs". Recode. Retrieved 2018-02-05.
  8. ↑ "2 Silicon Valley billionaires want to reinvent the Democratic Party with a new project called 'WTF'". Business Insider. Retrieved 2018-02-05.
  9. ↑ Wingfield, Nick (2016-03-01). "Mark Pincus, Founder of Zynga, Is Replaced as C.E.O. Again". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-02-05.
  10. ↑ VentureBeat January 2010[link]
  11. ↑ TechCrunch January 2010 Archived 2010-11-30 at the Wayback Machine.. Crunchies2009.techcrunch.com. Retrieved on 2011-11-13.
  12. ↑ Congratulations Crunchies Winners! Twitter Takes Best Startup Of 2010. TechCrunch (2011-01-21). Retrieved on 2011-11-13.
  13. ↑ Kesarios, George. "Can Zynga Execute In The Online Gambling Space?". Blog Post. Seeking Alpha. Retrieved 4 February 2013.
  14. ↑ Pepitone, Julianne (1 July 2011). "Zynga files for $1 billion IPO". CNNMoney. Retrieved 4 February 2013.
  15. ↑ Hareetz: "One day in Silicon Valley" by Guy Rolnick August 3, 2010
  16. ↑ Chicago Sun Times: "Ted Pincus, PR specialist, Sun-Times columnist, dies" BY DAVID ROEDER September 30, 2011
  17. ↑ New York Times: "Paid Notice: Deaths PINCUS, THEODORE" October 4, 2011
  18. ↑ Chicago Sun-Times: "Mark Pincus creates an empire with games designed for Facebook" By Sandra Guy March 27, 2011
  19. ↑ Businessweek: "Zynga IPO Tests CEO's 'Fearsome' Negotiating Style" By Douglas MacMillan December 12, 2011
  20. ↑ "Corner Office Are You CEO of Something?". The New York Times. Jan 30, 2010.
  21. ↑ Grigoriadis, Vanessa. "Ol' Mark Pincus Had a Farm…". The Hive. Retrieved 2018-02-11.
  22. ↑ "BusinessWeek Executive Profile Mark Pincus". BusinessWeek. Retrieved 23 June 2010.
  23. ↑ "Entrepreneur Profile on Mark Pincus". Entrepreneur Ideas. Retrieved 15 November 2015.
  24. ↑ "Tech World's Willy Wonka". Financial Times. Retrieved 2017-07-08.
  25. ↑ "Harvard Business School NamesThirteen Entrepreneurs-in-Residence - News - Harvard Business School". www.hbs.edu. Retrieved 2018-02-18.
  26. 1 2 "Entrepreneur-ideas.org". www.entrepreneur-ideas.org. Retrieved 2018-02-18.
  27. ↑ Harvard Business School NamesThirteen Entrepreneurs-in-Residence – Harvard Business School. Hbs.edu (2011-10-04). Retrieved on 2011-11-13.
  28. ↑ "Mark Pincus Background". Mark Pincus Blog. Archived from the original on 2010-06-11. Retrieved 2010-07-15.
  29. ↑ "Mark Pincus Brings Lessons in Entrepreneurship to Northwestern". The Northwestern Business Review. 2012-04-20. Retrieved 2018-02-18.
  30. ↑ "Mark Pincus". startup2startup. Retrieved 2010-07-15.
  31. ↑ "SUPPORT COM INC S-1 Filing". Edgar. Retrieved 2010-07-15.
  32. ↑ AllBusiness March 2002[link]
  33. ↑ Malik, Om. "Cisco's wrong bet on Social Networks". Blog. GigaOM. Retrieved 4 February 2013.
  34. ↑ Stone, Brad (March 3, 2007). "Social Networking's Next Phase". New York Times.
  35. ↑ Kirkpatrick, David (2010). The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 1-4391-0211-2.
  36. ↑ Riordan, Teresa (2003-12-01). "TECHNOLOGY & MEDIA: PATENTS; Idea for Online Networking Brings Two Entrepreneurs Together". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-02-18.
  37. ↑ "Zynga's Mark Pincus Talks About His Management Style, Acquisitions and Mobile". Video. All Things D. Retrieved 4 February 2013.
  38. ↑ Rivlin, Gary. "Friendster, Love and Money". Technology. The New York Times. Retrieved 4 February 2013.
  39. ↑ "Marissa Mayer and Mark Pincus invested in a startup that makes 'brain drugs' and chewable coffee", Business Insider, October 13, 2015
  40. ↑ Farr, Christina (2017-11-30). "Start-up makes millions selling 'brain hacking' pills, but its own study found coffee works better". CNBC. Retrieved 2018-02-22.
  41. ↑ "Marissa Mayer and Mark Pincus invested in a startup that makes 'brain drugs' and chewable coffee". Business Insider. Retrieved 2018-02-22.
  42. ↑ Roy, Aditi (2017-10-01). "What it's like to grow 100,000 carats of real diamonds in a lab". CNBC. Retrieved 2018-02-22.
  43. ↑ "Wealthfront raises $70 million Series D — Red Herring". Red Herring. 2014-10-28. Retrieved 2018-02-22.
  44. ↑ "Mark Pincus - Founder @ Zynga - Personal Investments | Crunchbase". Crunchbase. Retrieved 2018-02-22.
  45. ↑ "Harvard Business School NamesThirteen Entrepreneurs-in-Residence - News - Harvard Business School". www.hbs.edu. Retrieved 2018-02-22.
  46. ↑ Mitnick, Joshua (2013-10-02). "Zynga Founder Pincus: I'm Bored With Games". WSJ. Retrieved 2018-02-22.
  47. ↑ "Timeline: How Zynga became a $9 billion company". Reuters. 19 December 2011. Retrieved 2018-02-22.
  48. ↑ "Mark Pincus". Forbes. Retrieved 2018-02-22.
  49. ↑ Rivlin, Gary (2011-12-14). "Zynga's IPO Will Make Mark Pincus Silicon Valley's Next Billionaire". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2018-02-26.
  50. ↑ "Entrepreneur-ideas.org". www.entrepreneur-ideas.org. Retrieved 2018-02-26.
  51. ↑ Nayak, Malathi. "Confirmed: Xbox One boss Don Mattrick 'resigns'". Retrieved 1 July 2013.
  52. ↑ http://investor.zynga.com/releasedetail.cfm?Releaseid=905501
  53. ↑ "CEO Update". Retrieved 1 March 2016.
  54. ↑ Michael Arrington (6 November 2009). "Zynga CEO Mark Pincus: "I Did Every Horrible Thing In The Book Just To Get Revenues"". Techcrunch. Retrieved 14 March 2009.
  55. ↑ Pincus, Mark. "To Zwink or Not?". Mark Pincus' Blog. Archived from the original on 28 December 2009. Retrieved 4 February 2013.
  56. ↑ Arrington, Michael. "Zynga Takes Steps To Remove Scams From Games". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2018-03-04.
  57. ↑ Arrington, Michael. "Social Games: How The Big Three Make Millions". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2018-03-04.
  58. ↑ "BBB Business Profile | Zynga, Inc". www.bbb.org. Retrieved 2018-03-04.
  59. ↑ "Zynga Founder Launches New Startup Incubator". WIRED. Retrieved 2018-03-13.
  60. ↑ "Zynga Acquires Mark Pincus's Incubator, Superlabs". Recode. Retrieved 2018-03-13.
  61. ↑ "Mark Pincus and Reid Hoffman are launching a new group to rethink the Democratic Party". Recode. Retrieved 2018-03-13.
  62. ↑ "2 Silicon Valley billionaires want to reinvent the Democratic Party with a new project called 'WTF'". Business Insider. Retrieved 2018-03-13.
  63. ↑ "U.S. Department of the Interior Appoints Todd Willens to the Presidio Trust Board of Directors". Retrieved 2018-02-11.
  64. ↑ "Board and Executive Team". Presidio. Retrieved 2018-02-11.
  65. ↑ Web 2 Summit. Web 2 Summit. Retrieved on 2011-11-13.
  66. 1 2 "Zynga.org – A Digital Giving Year in Review". Blog. Zynga. Archived from the original on 11 February 2013. Retrieved 4 February 2013.
  67. ↑ Investopedia (2015-06-09). "Will Zynga's New Strategy Win Back Mobile Gamers?". Investopedia. Retrieved 2018-02-11.
  68. ↑ "Zynga CEO Don Mattrick to Depart; Founder and Chairman Mark Pincus to Return to Chief Executive Officer Role to Lead Zynga Into Next Chapter | Zynga Inc". Zynga Inc. Retrieved 2018-02-11.
  69. ↑ Zynga Will No Longer Take A Cut Of Charitable Donations. Techcrunch.com (2010-11-16). Retrieved on July 9, 2011.
  70. ↑ Zynga Enables Donations To Tsunami Relief Through In-Game Purchases. TechCrunch (2011-03-11). Retrieved on September 23, 2011.
  71. ↑ Save the Children and Zynga Team Up to Help Japan Disaster Relief Efforts. Save The Children (2011-03-12). Retrieved on September 23, 2011.
  72. ↑ Smith, Emily (March 30, 2017). "Zynga billionaire Mark Pincus embroiled in big-money divorce". Page six.
  73. ↑ ORTUTAY, BARBARA (26 June 2012). "CEO Interview: Zynga's Mark Pincus, unleashed". The San Diego Union-Tribune. Retrieved 15 February 2018.
  74. ↑ "In conversation with Mark Pincus, CEO Zynga". Gadgets 360. 27 June 2012. Retrieved 15 February 2018.
  75. ↑ GRIGORIADIS, VANESSA (June 2011). "OL' MARK PINCUS HAD A FARM…". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 15 February 2018.
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