When 19-year-old Mark Zuckerberg and Dustin Moskovitz, along with 24-year-old Sean Parker, were evicted from their first rental in Silicon Valley in the summer of 2004, they urgently needed to find a new home. – and a new home base for their growing company.
Facebook co-founders were forced to move from their previous location in Palo Alto following an incident involving a zip line tied around a chimney, which led down to the pool – probably wonderful; probably unauthorized in their lease.
Nowhere else to spend their frantic nights launching what would become one of the most successful technology platforms in history, they turned to Judy Fusco, a landlord who wanted to rent his newly renovated house with six bedrooms and five bathrooms. from nearby Los Altos. to a responsible tenant.
Fusco’s house – along with the boys’ short-lived party palm – would become the backdrop to the tradition of the technological world, immortalized in films such as “The Social Network” and referenced in TV shows, including “Silicon Valley.” At Fusco, the scrappy startup launched a global company now worth billions of dollars.
But Fusco could have told you that.
“[When] I decided then that I would rent the house, I invited a monk to come and bless the house “, 76-year-old Fusco told The Post. “As he surrounded the house, he said, ‘Someone who will be very rich and famous will come to live here. ””
The house is now rented for $ 10,000 a month, The Post reported. Facilities include solar electricity, hardwood floors – and a portion of Silicon Valley history.
When Fusco rented the house at the end of August 2004, its first potential tenants came from Microsoft. The second group would be Zuckerberg and Moskovitz, 36 years ago, and Parker, 41 years ago.
Zuckerberg, whose representatives did not respond to The Post’s request to comment on the story, wore black jersey shorts, sandals and his sweatshirt, Fusco recalled.
“Mark sat outside and never entered the house, while Sean and Dustin ran up the front stairs to see the house,” Fusco recalled. “Mark sat there and immediately asked if I could rent the place, without even looking inside.”
The first owner herself did not think to ask the reason for Zuckerberg’s urgency – the zip line would probably have made her think twice about renting the crew. But she told her new tenant that she would need the rent and first deposit in the first month, totaling $ 10,000. The prodigy of technology now facing him wrote a check on the spot.
“I read the check and asked him what he did and he told me about a company called Facebook and how he planned to connect the world,” Fusco said. “I told him, ‘I don’t care if you connect the world, if this check doesn’t pass, don’t move. ””
The check passed, and Zuckerberg, Moskovitz and Parker moved in two weeks later, on September 14, 2004, along with a few unexpected guests.
“There were only six bedrooms, and in the solar lounge there were about 10 trainees sitting there crammed into bunk beds,” Fusco said. “The house exploded with engineers and Facebook employees,” as opposed to HBO’s “Silicon Valley” “hacker house.”
Fusco said Zuckerberg would refer to the technology commune as “Facebook House,” the same title he would give to his book, detailing its six-month experience as the sole owner of Facebook.
One such experience he remembered was a week before Thanksgiving, in 2004, when technological wizards left home to go on a ski trip.
“I get a call late at night from Mark and he panics, telling me that they left all the doors unlocked and that all 10 servers were unattended there,” Fusco said. “He told me that if those servers are stolen, then the whole company is gone because they have no cash resources.”
Fusco got in the car and headed home about half an hour later to find a vacant house, with all the lights on, loud music, and unlocked doors for any stranger to enter.
“I went in with my gardener and brought him with me because I was afraid that someone would have entered the house. But the first thing I did while my gardener was researching the area was to count the servers. Fortunately, all 10 were still there. ”
Fusco also noticed a tense moment with Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss on the balcony, arguing with Zuckerberg. The twins filed a lawsuit in 2004 against Zuckerberg, claiming that Zuckerberg copied his idea and illegally used the source code for the website he was hired to create. In February 2008, a settlement agreement was reached, estimated at $ 65 million.
“I didn’t know who they were at the time,” she said of the culturally known duo Winklevii. “But I saw them shouting at Mark on the balcony. They were not happy. ”
Then it was time for Zuckerberg to return from a meeting with venture capitalist Peter Thiel, who was one of Facebook’s previous investors, she recalled.
“At the time, he was driving this old car – a green Ford SUV – and he died on the highway. So he was three hours late to meet Peter Thiel. And Peter saw Mark get out of a taxi. So Mark explained what had happened, and Peter had just written him a $ 50,000 check to buy a new car. So I supported him to the end. ”
On October 1, 2005, Facebook expanded to 21 universities in the UK and others around the world.
During its time at home, Facebook grew internationally and reached over 6 million users by December 2005.
Despite all their agitation, Fusco looked back a few months when he noticed that Zuckerberg’s team had come of age. One of the fondest memories was when the Internal Revenue Service followed her after Zuckerberg posted her as “employee number 8” on Facebook.
“I called Mark and said, ‘Mark, they think I work for you,'” Fusco continued. “He said, ‘I’m sorry, Judy, we have no idea what we’re doing, I’m going to get the accountant to call the IRS and fix the problem.’ And he did. They fixed it. And they sent me flowers home the next day. ”
The “Facebook House” team was to move in March 2005 after the space became too small for their growing company. But it wasn’t the last thing he heard from the “boys,” as he still calls them.
“Sean [Parker] he would come to me repeatedly, asking me to invest, telling me that I would be a billionaire one day if I did, ”Fusco admitted. “They offered to give me the stock instead of rent – one dollar per stock. I said no.”
“And looking back, I always think of the monk who came to my house. I had no idea it would be the Facebook brand. I had a daughter to learn, I was afraid to take risks at that moment. But Sean was right. ”
Today, Facebook is estimated to be worth $ 280 billion.
“I don’t think I just had to be a billionaire,” Fusco said. “That was not my fate.”