33 Facts About Mark Pincus

Mark Jonathan Pincus was born on February 13,1966 and is an American Internet entrepreneur known as the founder of Zynga, a mobile social gaming company.

Mark Pincus was named 2009 "CEO of the Year" at The Crunchies technology awards and a year later was named Founder of the Year at the 2010 ceremony.

Mark Pincus co-founded Reinvent Capital in 2018, an investment firm, with Reid Hoffman and hedge fund manager Michael Thompson.

Mark Pincus co-created the Stanford Graduate School of Business course on Product Management with Professor Amir Goldberg.

Mark Pincus was born into a Jewish family in Chicago and raised in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood.

Mark Pincus is the son of Donna and Theodore Pincus.

Mark Pincus's father was a business columnist and public relations adviser to CEOs and politicians and his mother was an artist and architect.

Mark Pincus returned to the United States in order to attend Harvard Business School where he was a contemporary of Chris Hohn, Guy Spier and Chris Shumway.

In 1995, Mark Pincus founded his first startup, Freeloader, Inc Freeloader was backed by Fred Wilson and Softbank.

Mark Pincus was acquired seven months after its launch by Individual, Inc.

Mark Pincus later went on to co-found Napster, and Pincus became Napster's first investor with an investment of $100,000.

Mark Pincus went public in July 2000 at a $1.5 billion valuation.

In 2003, at age 37, Mark Pincus founded his third startup, Tribe.

Mark Pincus was a founding investor in Napster, Facebook, Friendster, Snapchat, Xiaomi and Twitter.

In 2015, Mark Pincus invested in the nootropics company HVMN, man-made diamond company Diamond Foundry, and in 2014 automated investment service firm Wealthfront.

In July 2007 Mark Pincus founded his fourth company, Zynga Inc Zynga developed games on top of social networks such as Facebook, Myspace, and Bebo.

In 2011, Mark Pincus took the company public with a $1 billion IPO.

Mark Pincus served as CEO of the company from 2007 to 2013.

Mark Pincus remained actively involved in the company as Chairman of the Board and Chief Product Officer, but stepped down from his role as chief product officer to focus on his role as chairman of the board, the company announced in April 2014.

Mark Pincus returned to the role of CEO of Zynga in April 2015.

On March 7,2016, Mark Pincus stepped down as CEO, but continued his association with Zynga as Executive Chairman of the Board with Frank Gibeau in the role of CEO.

In 2014 Mark Pincus started Superlabs, an incubator to develop products.

In 2018, with Reid Hoffman and Michael Thompson, Mark Pincus co-founded Reinvent Capital, an investment firm that invests in internet, software, and media companies.

In February 2021, Mark Pincus and Reinvent partners announced its third SPAC, Reinvent Technology Partners Y, raising $977.5 million in its IPO.

Mark Pincus is a former member of the board of the Presidio Trust, a federal agency that operates and maintains the Presidio as part of the Golden Gate Recreation Area.

Mark Pincus was appointed to the board by President Obama in 2017.

In May 2020, Mark Pincus donated $700,000 to the Oakland Unified School District and City of Oakland to help meet their $12.5 million goal towards eliminating the prevalent digital gap that exists in Oakland.

In February 2020, Mark Pincus donated $3 million to Roden Crater, a large scale Land artwork by James Turrell within a dormant volcano in the Painted Desert region of Northern Arizona.

Mark Pincus donated the first $100,000 for the initiative, since it was not covered by government funds.

Mark Pincus donated over $100,000 to Canal Alliance in June 2020.

Mark Pincus is a longtime supporter of Kamala Harris, and co-hosted a fundraiser for her campaign in 2016.

Mark Pincus spends his time away from work with his daughters, cycling, surfing, playing soccer and doing yoga.

Mark Pincus joined The Giving Pledge in 2022, committing to donating most of his wealth.