Tyler Winklevoss rows against the Facebook tide
Portfolio.com has interviewed Tyler Winklevoss, one of the Harvard graduates who has charged Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg with stealing the idea behind the hot social network. Winklevoss, who founded HarvardConnection, a college-networking site now known as ConnectU, appears to be a very angry, bitter young man. We love those types! Here's what Winklevoss had to say to Portfolio about Zuckerberg's actions: "Premeditated, well thought out, duplicitous and conniving." Winklevoss adds, "He messed with the wrong guys." Of course, Winklevoss is more than a bit duplicitous himself in the interview.
Where he goes too far is whe he tries to pretend that he, twin brother Cameron, and partner Divya Narendra — Facebook-founder wannabes, all three — are just trying to right a wrong, not trying to win a big legal settlement:
We've been pursuing this since Facebook had 200 users. We are fully prepared to go all the way.
Of course they are, now that Facebook has raised millions of dollars in venture capital, and has valuations in the billions of dollars bandied about as cocktail-party chatter. If Zuckerberg's startup had flounderd and failed? Of course Winklevoss wouldn't be bothering with this legal battle. As a rower training for the Olympics, Tyler Winklevoss knows when to go all-out in the pursuit of a prize: Only when it's made of solid gold.