Mark Pincus American Internet entrepreneur, co-founder of Zynga Date of Birth: 13.02.1966 Country: USA

1. Biography of Mark Pincus
2. Early Life and Education
3. Early Career
4. Entrepreneurial Ventures
5. Philanthropy and Later Career

Biography of Mark Pincus

Mark Jonathan Pincus is an American internet entrepreneur and co-founder of Zynga, a company that claims to be the largest gaming social network on the internet. As of July 2013, Zynga's stock was valued at $3.07 per share, and Pincus' net worth was estimated at $780 million.

Early Life and Education

Mark Jonathan Pincus was born on February 13, 1966, in Chicago, in a Jewish family. His father, Theodore Pincus, was a business news reporter and public relations consultant for top executives and politicians. His mother, Donna Forman, was an architect. Later, his father married Sherry Barra, and his mother married Sheldon Meyers. Pincus has two biological sisters, three half-sisters, and one half-brother. He attended Francis W. Parker School from kindergarten to 12th grade and graduated in 1984. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School.

Early Career

Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, Pincus worked for six years in venture capital and financial services. He spent two years as a financial analyst at Lazard Freres & Co. after graduating from Wharton. After moving to Hong Kong, he served as a vice president at Asian Capital Partners for two years. He returned to the United States and attended Harvard Business School, where he interned at Bain & Co. in the summer of 1992. A year later, Pincus became Manager of Corporate Development at Tele-Communications, Inc. (now AT&T Cable). After another year, he joined Columbia Capital as a Vice President, where he was responsible for investing in new media and start-ups with innovative software in Washington, D.C.

Entrepreneurial Ventures

Pincus launched his first start-up, Freeloader, Inc., in 1995. It was a technology service with a web-based platform. After seven months, the company was acquired by Individual, Inc. for $38 million. His second company, Support.com, was founded in August 1997. As Chairman and CEO, Pincus turned his creation into a leading provider of hardware-software support services and automation. The company went public in July 2000 and changed its name to SupportSoft, Inc. two years later. At the age of 37, Pincus founded his third start-up, Tribe.net, in 2003, which was one of the earliest social networks. The network had partnerships with major local newspapers and received support from Guy Spier, The Washington Post, Knight Ridder Digital, and Mayfield Fund. In 2007, the social network was acquired by Cisco Systems.

Pincus also invested in companies such as Napster, Facebook, Friendster, and Twitter. In July 2007, he founded his fourth company, Zynga Inc., where he served as CEO until July 2013. Initially, Kyle Stewart and Scott Dale were part of the founding team. Zynga develops games for various social networks, including Facebook, as well as for mobile devices such as Android, iPhone, and iPad. Currently, Zynga has approximately 123 million monthly active users. In addition to creating its own games, Zynga also allows third-party developers to be part of the company.

Philanthropy and Later Career

In October 2009, Pincus started Zynga.org, a charitable organization that aims to change the world through virtual social good. Through the sale of virtual goods for charity, this project raised $15 million for several international non-profit organizations. In 2010, Zynga faced criticism for allegedly keeping 50% of the donations collected for relief efforts after the earthquake in Haiti. This criticism was based on an article in a Brazilian magazine, as well as social media and blog posts.

On March 11, 2011, Zynga announced that all revenue from the purchase of virtual goods (copies of seven computer games) would be donated to Save the Children, specifically to its Japanese branch, to help those affected by earthquakes. During the 2012 holiday season, Zynga.org partnered with the Toys for Tots program to conduct the largest charity campaign. The campaign raised $745,000.

On July 1, 2013, it was confirmed that Don Mattrick, former president of Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft, would replace Pincus as CEO of Zynga. Pincus has lived in several cities in the United States, including Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Denver. He currently resides in San Francisco with his wife, Ali Gelb Pincus, and their twin daughters. His wife is the founder of One Kings Lane, a website that sells furniture and home accessories.