Mark Pincus
Encyclopedia
Mark Jonathan Pincus is an Internet entrepreneur
best known as the co-founder of Zynga
, which makes online social games. Pincus also founded Freeloader, Inc., Tribe Networks
, and SupportSoft. Pincus currently serves as CEO of Zynga, which had 232 million monthly active users as of July 1, 2011. Zynga's top games include: CityVille
, FarmVille
, The Pioneer Trail
, Zynga Poker, Mafia Wars
, Empires & Allies
, and Indiana Jones Adventure World
. In 2009, Pincus was named "CEO of the Year" in The Crunchies and in the same month of 2011 was named Founder of the Year for 2010, as well.
's Lincoln Park
neighborhood. He attended Francis W. Parker School
from kindergarten through 12th grade and graduated in 1984.
Pincus holds a Bachelor of Science
degree in Economics
from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
and an MBA from Harvard Business School
.
He returned to the US to attend Harvard Business School (HBS) and graduated from HBS in 1993 and also spent a summer as an associate for Bain & Co. in 1992. After the internship Bain did not extend an offer for Pincus to return full-time.
After Pincus graduated from Harvard Business School, he took a job as a manager of corporate development at Tele-Communications, Inc, now AT&T Cable. A year later, he joined Columbia Capital as a vice president where he led investments in new media and software startups for a year in Washington, DC.
In 1995, Pincus launched his first startup, Freeloader, Inc., a web-based push technology service that was acquired seven months later by Individual, Inc. for $38 million.
He then started his second company, Support.com, in August 1997. As chairman and CEO, Pincus built the company into a leading provider for service and support automation software. The company went public in July 2000. In 2002, the company changed its name from Support.com to SupportSoft, Inc.
In 2003, at age 37, Pincus founded his third startup, Tribe.net, one of the first social networks. Tribe.net partnered with major local newspapers and was backed by 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.
In 2003, Pincus and Reid Hoffman
purchased a broad sweeping patent that describes a social network service that is the heart of social networks from the extinct sixdegrees company for $700,000.
, in July 2007 and currently serves as the CEO. Zynga is named after Pincus's late American Bulldog, Zinga. The early supporting team included Kyle Stewart, Scott Dale and John Doerr. Zynga develops social games played on various social networks including Facebook
, as well as on mobile devices including the Android, iPhone
and iPad
. Zynga currently boasts over 265 million monthly active users across its network of games, which include CityVille
, Empires & Allies
, FarmVille
, FrontierVille
, Mafia Wars
, Zynga Poker, Café World, Treasure Isle, YoVille, FishVille, PetVille and Indiana Jones Adventure World. In addition to making their own games, Zynga has created a network which allows third party developers to become part of the Zynga network. Zynga claims to be the largest social game network on the web.
In a video posted November 9, 2009, Zynga CEO Mark 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,".
In October 2009, Pincus started Zynga.org
, which claims to be "committed to transforming the world through virtual social goods". Zynga.org has raised more than $10 million for several international nonprofits by occasionally selling virtual goods for charitable causes. However, the company had been criticized in the past for keeping up to 50% of donations it collected.
On March 11, 2011, Zynga announced that 100% of proceeds from purchases of virtual goods in more than seven of its games would go to Japan's Save the Children
Earthquake Emergency Fund.
, Washington, D.C.
and Denver and currently resides in San Francisco with his wife, Ali Pincus (founder of One Kings Lane) and his twin daughters.
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
best known as the co-founder of Zynga
Zynga
Zynga is a social network game developer located in San Francisco, United States. The company develops browser-based games that work both stand-alone and as application widgets on social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace....
, which makes online social games. Pincus also founded Freeloader, Inc., Tribe Networks
Tribe.net
tribe.net is a website that hosts an online community of friends, similar to other social networking sites. The site name is always spelled in all lower case.-History:...
, and SupportSoft. Pincus currently serves as CEO of Zynga, which had 232 million monthly active users as of July 1, 2011. Zynga's top games include: CityVille
CityVille
CityVille is a casual social city-building simulation game developed by Zynga, and released in December 2010.The game is very similar to SimCity and Farmville,. The goal is to develop a city by farming, constructing buildings, and collecting rent...
, FarmVille
FarmVille
FarmVille is a farming simulation social network game developed by Zynga in 2009. It is similar to Happy Farm, Farm Town,, and older games such as the Harvest Moon series...
, The Pioneer Trail
FrontierVille
The Pioneer Trail, formerly known as FrontierVille is a simulation, role-playing video game available for play on social networking sites such as Facebook. It is developed by Zynga and was launched on June 9, 2010...
, Zynga Poker, Mafia Wars
Mafia Wars
Mafia Wars is a multiplayer Social network game created by Zynga.In Mafia Wars the gamers play as gangsters building their own mafia. The players fight other players online and complete tasks to gain rewards and strength in the game. The game is a freemium game, meaning it is free to play normally...
, Empires & Allies
Empires & Allies
Empires & Allies is a social network game that is Zynga's first combat and strategy game. The game, the first release by Zynga's Los Angeles studio, launched in twelve languages on June 1, 2011. G4TV.com writer Jake Gaskill called the release the "biggest launch of any Zynga title to date"...
, and Indiana Jones Adventure World
Indiana Jones Adventure World
Indiana Jones Adventure World is a 2011 adventure game for the social network Facebook. It is the first game made by Zynga's Boston development studio, which is made up of developers from Conduit Labs and Floodgate Entertainment...
. In 2009, Pincus was named "CEO of the Year" in The Crunchies and in the same month of 2011 was named Founder of the Year for 2010, as well.
Early life and background
Pincus was born in Chicago and raised in ChicagoChicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
's Lincoln Park
Lincoln Park, Chicago
Lincoln Park, is one of the 77 community areas on Chicago, Illinois North Side, USA. Named after Lincoln Park, a vast park bordering Lake Michigan, the community area is anchored by the Lincoln Park Zoo and DePaul University...
neighborhood. He attended Francis W. Parker School
Francis W. Parker School (Chicago)
Francis W. Parker School is an independent day school serving students from junior kindergarten through grade twelve of high school. Located in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood, the school is based on the progressive educational philosophies of John Dewey and Colonel Francis Wayland Parker,...
from kindergarten through 12th grade and graduated in 1984.
Pincus holds a Bachelor of Science
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...
degree in Economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
and an MBA from Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School is the graduate business school of Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts, United States and is widely recognized as one of the top business schools in the world. The school offers the world's largest full-time MBA program, doctoral programs, and many executive...
.
Career
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, he moved to Hong Kong where he served as a vice president for Asian Capital Partners for two years.He returned to the US to attend Harvard Business School (HBS) and graduated from HBS in 1993 and also spent a summer as an associate for Bain & Co. in 1992. After the internship Bain did not extend an offer for Pincus to return full-time.
After Pincus graduated from Harvard Business School, he took a job as a manager of corporate development at Tele-Communications, Inc, now AT&T Cable. A year later, he joined Columbia Capital as a vice president where he led investments in new media and software startups for a year in Washington, DC.
In 1995, Pincus launched his first startup, Freeloader, Inc., a web-based push technology service that was acquired seven months later by Individual, Inc. for $38 million.
He then started his second company, Support.com, in August 1997. As chairman and CEO, Pincus built the company into a leading provider for service and support automation software. The company went public in July 2000. In 2002, the company changed its name from Support.com to SupportSoft, Inc.
In 2003, at age 37, Pincus founded his third startup, Tribe.net, one of the first social networks. Tribe.net partnered with major local newspapers and was backed by The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, Knight Ridder
Knight Ridder
Knight Ridder was an American media company, specializing in newspaper and Internet publishing. Until it was bought by The McClatchy Company on June 27, 2006, it was the second-largest newspaper publisher in the United States, with 32 daily newspapers sold.- History :The corporate ancestors of...
Digital, and Mayfield Fund
Mayfield Fund
Mayfield Fund is one of the oldest venture capital firms in the US, focusing on early-stage to growth-stage investments in information technology companies with a focus on enterprise software, Internet consumer & media services, and communications....
. In 2007, Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems, Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Jose, California, United States, that designs and sells consumer electronics, networking, voice, and communications technology and services. Cisco has more than 70,000 employees and annual revenue of US$...
acquired the core technology assets of Tribe.net to develop a social networking platform for its digital media services group.
In 2003, Pincus and Reid Hoffman
Reid Hoffman
Reid G. Hoffman is an American entrepreneur and venture capitalist. Hoffman is best known as the co-founder of LinkedIn, a social network used primarily for business connections and job searching.-Early education and career:...
purchased a broad sweeping patent that describes a social network service that is the heart of social networks from the extinct sixdegrees company for $700,000.
Zynga
Pincus cofounded his fourth company, Zynga Inc.Zynga
Zynga is a social network game developer located in San Francisco, United States. The company develops browser-based games that work both stand-alone and as application widgets on social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace....
, in July 2007 and currently serves as the CEO. Zynga is named after Pincus's late American Bulldog, Zinga. The early supporting team included Kyle Stewart, Scott Dale and John Doerr. Zynga develops social games played on various social networks including Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
, as well as on mobile devices including the Android, iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
and iPad
IPad
The iPad is a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content. The iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010 by Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs. Its size and...
. Zynga currently boasts over 265 million monthly active users across its network of games, which include CityVille
CityVille
CityVille is a casual social city-building simulation game developed by Zynga, and released in December 2010.The game is very similar to SimCity and Farmville,. The goal is to develop a city by farming, constructing buildings, and collecting rent...
, Empires & Allies
Empires & Allies
Empires & Allies is a social network game that is Zynga's first combat and strategy game. The game, the first release by Zynga's Los Angeles studio, launched in twelve languages on June 1, 2011. G4TV.com writer Jake Gaskill called the release the "biggest launch of any Zynga title to date"...
, FarmVille
FarmVille
FarmVille is a farming simulation social network game developed by Zynga in 2009. It is similar to Happy Farm, Farm Town,, and older games such as the Harvest Moon series...
, FrontierVille
FrontierVille
The Pioneer Trail, formerly known as FrontierVille is a simulation, role-playing video game available for play on social networking sites such as Facebook. It is developed by Zynga and was launched on June 9, 2010...
, Mafia Wars
Mafia Wars
Mafia Wars is a multiplayer Social network game created by Zynga.In Mafia Wars the gamers play as gangsters building their own mafia. The players fight other players online and complete tasks to gain rewards and strength in the game. The game is a freemium game, meaning it is free to play normally...
, Zynga Poker, Café World, Treasure Isle, YoVille, FishVille, PetVille and Indiana Jones Adventure World. In addition to making their own games, Zynga has created a network which allows third party developers to become part of the Zynga network. Zynga claims to be the largest social game network on the web.
In a video posted November 9, 2009, Zynga CEO Mark 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,".
In October 2009, Pincus started Zynga.org
Zynga.org
Zynga,org is Zynga’s philanthropic initiative, enabling players to contribute to charitable causes by purchasing specially created virtual goods within Zynga games. Launched in October 2009, it has raised more than $10 million for non-profit organizations.]...
, which claims to be "committed to transforming the world through virtual social goods". Zynga.org has raised more than $10 million for several international nonprofits by occasionally selling virtual goods for charitable causes. However, the company had been criticized in the past for keeping up to 50% of donations it collected.
On March 11, 2011, Zynga announced that 100% of proceeds from purchases of virtual goods in more than seven of its games would go to Japan's Save the Children
Save the Children
Save the Children is an internationally active non-governmental organization that enforces children's rights, provides relief and helps support children in developing countries...
Earthquake Emergency Fund.
Personal life
Pincus has lived in several cities across the U.S. including Philadelphia, BostonBoston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
and Denver and currently resides in San Francisco with his wife, Ali Pincus (founder of One Kings Lane) and his twin daughters.