Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future · chapter 5 · id zero-to-one-c5-03-facebook-started-with-just-har

“Facebook started with just Harvard students before expanding to other universities, then high schools, then the general public. PayPal grew by focusing on eBay power sellers.”

needs contextconfidence: high⚠ extracted by pipeline, re-audit pending

Receipts

The Harvard Crimson (February 9, 2004)source alive

TheFacebook.com launched on February 4, 2004, exclusively for Harvard students. Within 24 hours, 1,200 Harvard students had signed up. By end of February, three-quarters of Harvard undergrads had profiles.

David Kirkpatrick -- The Facebook Effect (2010, Simon & Schuster)source alive

Expansion sequence: Harvard (Feb 2004) to Columbia/Stanford/Yale (late Feb) to remaining Ivy League (March) to most US/Canadian universities (mid-2004) to high schools (Sept 2005) to general public (Sept 2006). The school-by-school rollout was deliberate.

Eric Jackson -- The PayPal Wars (2004, World Ahead Publishing)FLAGGED: dead link (404)

PayPal initially launched as a Palm Pilot payment app, then pivoted to email payments. Early growth was driven by a $10 signup/$10 referral bonus. PayPal noticed eBay transactions organically, then deliberately targeted eBay power sellers mid-2000.

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