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The Men Behind MySpace: How Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson First Met

Article Overview: “It sounds crazy,” says Chris DeWolfe, “but even in the first plan that I wrote up, I mentioned AOL, Yahoo! and Hotmail, knowing we would be big. And it’s crazy to think that it happened.”

The Men Behind MySpace: How Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson First Met

“It sounds crazy,” says Chris DeWolfe, “but even in the first plan that I wrote up, I mentioned AOL, Yahoo! and Hotmail, knowing we would be big. And it’s crazy to think that it happened.”

Together, Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson have over 200 million “friends” and chances are you might be one of them. The two buddies are the brains behind MySpace.com, the online networking site that has taken the world by storm. The second venture for the pair, DeWolfe and Anderson’s first company was sold for several million dollars. Now, MySpace.com, which allows members to create interactive profiles, blogs, and post just about anything they want, is the sixth most popular website in the world, and the third most popular in the U.S. But it was a business that almost never got started.

Anderson was born on October 13, 1975 in San Diego, California. His father was an entrepreneur, who he says, “had one crazy idea after another.” Anderson wanted nothing to do with the business world, rebelling in his own way by studying English and Rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley, and playing in various indie music bands. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1998, Anderson enrolled in film school at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he graduated in 2000 with his Masters degree.

Christopher T. DeWolfe was born in 1966 in Portland, Oregon. Both of his parents were teachers, but DeWolfe was determined not to follow in their footsteps. He chose instead to enroll in the business program at the University of Washington, where he earned his Bachelors of Finance degree. He later received his MBA from the USC Marshall School of Business.

When the two young minds first met, they were both intrigued by the buzz going on around them in Silicon Valley. “We met about seven or eight years ago during the beginning of that Internet boom,” says De Wolfe. Both were working at the same dot-com startup. While DeWolfe was enjoying his position as a marketing executive, Anderson was less than happy in his lesser position.
Dissatisfied with his boss, Anderson was getting ready to quit his job. That is, until he met De Wolfe. “Chris kind of rescued me and pulled me into his department, and said, ‘Don’t leave,’” recalls Anderson. “And that’s sort of where we started out.”

Had Anderson quit his job that day instead of bumping into DeWolfe MySpace never would have happened. Luckily for the two, however, they formed a fast friendship, which would take both of them in new creative directions.

“Tom has a million ideas, and some of them are pretty good,” says DeWolfe. “Some of them are a little wacky. But oh, this one was just a phenomenal idea.”

What was Anderson’s “phenomenal idea?” “At a basic level, it’s just like e-mail on steroids or something,” says Anderson. “You can find everybody, and it’s got pictures, and you can talk to a bunch of people at once. It's cool.”

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Article Tags: bachelor of arts, bachelor of arts degree, business program, chris dewolfe, crazy idea, film school, finance degree, hotmail, indie music, internet boom, masters degree, music bands, myspace, san diego california, silicon valley, studying english, tom anderson, university of california berkeley, university of california los angeles, usc marshall school



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Re: Facebook and Beacon - What Do You Think - Hi ChrisH, As a Facebook user myself, I can't say that I'm entirely surprised by Mark Zuckerberg's actions. Server costs are expensive and he's essentially sitting on a gold mine of users, so can we really blame him for "selling out" and trying to find new ways to profit? Facebook is the top dog for now, but one day there'll be a bigger and better social networking site and one that doesn't exploit its users... it's a fact of life. MySpace surpassed Friendster, while Facebook beat out MySpace. The only question is who will step up to take down Facebook? And how soon from now?
Subtle promo - [quote:qwzbxluf]I totally agree with your points, subtle promo is much better on these sites[/quote:qwzbxluf] A couple of days ago on MySpace, I received a "friend request" from someone who was clearly just a marketer... his request read just like those spam letters you get in your email. I didn't bother to respond, but i didn't delete his request, either. Today, although the request is still there, his photo is gone from it and "Profile removed" in its place. In other words, spammers on MySpace get deleted! So you've got to be subtle. I deal strictly with sf and fantasy groups, and space and marine science groups. There's several published authors there who're delighted to send review copies of their books...
Facebook or MySpace? - Barbara - do you mind sharing some of your successes with MySpace? What are you doing to make it worthwhile and what results have you seen?
Re: Young entrepreneurs - [quote="jvprosperity":zjt1ivrr][quote="BizLoanz4u":zjt1ivrr] Is it something she went with because she knew what she was doing, knew how to grow a business and knew her concept would te off, or is it something she happened to try, not really knowing too much about it and the concept just took off?[/quote:zjt1ivrr] Bizloan4u, I'm starting to agree with this statement. The site is an artistic impression of herself trying to make Myspace sites look better. I'm not sure if the success was intentional and planned out. If it was planned out I think it's time to funnel some of those millions into improving her site. What do you think? Is her site more effective the way it is now or does it need a revamp to show a more serious side to her business?[/quote:zjt1ivrr] None of us are really her core target audience, so I think her site is fine the way it is. Some adults probably use her site and her layouts, but I would think that teenagers make up the majority of her customers. Even if she makes millions, MySpace layouts are only so serious, aren't they?? Chris
I've joined! - Well, I just joined your group! My own experience on Facebook hasn't been that great, although after about a month I did get in contact with an SF fan who has been writing some articles for me... MySpace has worked out much better...


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