Quote Originally Posted by TopDogger View Post
It depends upon how you define "wealthy." I have not heard of very many non-wealthy people who could afford Harvard tuition.

Mark Zuckerberg biography

It appears that his father was a dentist and his mother a psychiatrist. Depending upon how successful their practices were, they may or may not have been wealthy.
Mark Zuckerberg's parent were definitely "well off". His father is a dentist which the avearage salary is 200k.

Harvard tuition is really not much when you compare it to other private universities. The tuition at Havard is $36k Harvard College Admissions � Financial Aid: Cost of Attendance which compares well with 2nd tier universities that charge $34k. As for the living expenses, there actually cheaper than let's say Undergraduate Tuition & Fees - College at Florham :: Fairleigh Dickinson University

The big advantage that Zuckerberg had was that his parents had the money to prepare him for Haravard:

To keep up with Mark's burgeoning interest in computers, his parents hired private computer tutor

Zuckerberg later studied at Phillips Exeter Academy, an exclusive preparatory school in New Hampshire

Quote Originally Posted by TopDogger View Post
From my perspective, I see a certain "weasel factor" involved with people who have the ability to finance a venture, but want someone else to take all of the risk while they reap the rewards.
You hit the nail on the head with "weasel factor"

I think at some point he would have needed to bring in Venture Capitalists. The .com companies burn through a lot of cash and the real money isn't made until the IPO. Though, he should have started with some of his own money. At least the first 50k. I don't think that he needed to take 40k from Eduardo Saverin.

While still in high school, he created an early version of the music software Pandora, which he called Synapse. Several companies—including AOL and Microsoft—expressed an interest in buying the software, and hiring the teenager before graduation. He declined the offers.
This is a quote form the article. Zuckerburg and his family knew he had something. It's not everyone that has AOL and Microsoft knocking on their doors.


Quote Originally Posted by Sami4u View Post
My biological father must have taught me wrong I know I am doing it wrong for I have used my own money on almost all of the sites I have started. According to him all business ventures should be started with OPM (others peoples money) or OPC (other peoples credit) so with that in mind when Zuckerberg started facebook with others money and time my father would of said it was done correctly.
One angle that I see with this approach is that you need to "justify" the venture to a third party. It may be too easy to put resources into a venture that may not pay off.

This is an interesting article that I found How to Find Willing Investors | Inc.com