Tyler Howard Winklevoss is an American rower and entrepreneur.
He competed in the men's pair rowing event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics with his identical
twin brother and rowing partner, Cameron Winklevoss.
Winklevoss co-founded HarvardConnection along with his brother Cameron and a Harvard classmate
of theirs, Divya Narendra.
In 2004, the Winklevoss brothers sued Mark Zuckerberg for $65 million, claiming he stole
their ConnectU idea to create the popular social networking site Facebook.
Early life and education Tyler Winklevoss was born in Southampton,
New York, and raised in Greenwich, Connecticut.
His father, Howard E. Winklevoss, was a professor of actuarial science at the Wharton School
of the University of Pennsylvania, and is the author of Pension Mathematics With Numerical
Illustrations, and founder of Winklevoss Consultants and Winklevoss Technologies.
Tyler studied classical piano for 12 years, beginning at age 6.
The twins taught themselves HTML at the age of 13, and started a web-page company, which
developed websites for businesses.
Winklevoss attended Greenwich Country Day School and graduated from the Brunswick School.
He studied Latin and Ancient Greek in high school.
During his junior year, he and his brother Cameron Winklevoss founded the crew program.
He matriculated to Harvard College in 2000 and majored in economics, earning an A.B.
and graduating in 2004.
At Harvard, he was a member of the men's varsity crew, the Porcellian Club and the Hasty Pudding
Club.
In 2009, Winklevoss began graduate business study at the Said Business School at the University
of Oxford and completed an MBA in 2010.
While at Oxford, he was a member of Christ Church, an Oxford Blue, and rowed in the Blue
Boat in the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race.
ConnectU
In December 2002, Winklevoss, along with his brother Cameron Winklevoss and fellow Harvard
classmate Divya Narendra, sought a better way to connect with fellow students at Harvard
University and other universities.
The three conceived of a social network for Harvard students named HarvardConnection;
the concept ultimately expanded to other schools around the country.
In January 2003, they enlisted the help of fellow Harvard student, programmer and friend
Sanjay Mavinkurve to begin building HarvardConnection.
Mavinkurve commenced work on HarvardConnection but departed the project in spring 2003 when
he graduated and went to work for Google.
After the departure of Mavinkurve, the Winklevosses and Narendra approached Narendra’s friend,
Harvard student and programmer Victor Gao, to work on HarvardConnection.
Gao, a senior in Mather House, opted not to become a partner in the venture, instead agreeing
to be paid in a work for hire capacity.
He was paid $400 for his work on the website code during the summer and fall of 2003, when
he left the project.
Mark Zuckerberg In November 2003, at the suggestion of Victor
Gao, the Winklevosses and Narendra approached Mark Zuckerberg about joining the HarvardConnection
team.
The previous HarvardConnection programmers had reportedly made progress on coding front-end
pages, the registration system, a database, back-end coding, and a way users could connect
with each other, which Gao called a "handshake".
In early November, Narendra emailed Zuckerberg saying, “We’re very deep into developing
a site which we would like you to be a part of and ... which we know will make some waves
on campus.”
Within days, Zuckerberg was talking to the HarvardConnection team and preparing to take
over programming duties from Gao.
On the evening of November 25, 2003, the Winklevosses and Narendra met with Zuckerberg in the dining
hall of Harvard's Kirkland House, where they explained to Zuckerberg the HarvardConnection
website, the plan to expand to other schools after launch, the confidential nature of the
project, and the importance of getting there first.
During the meeting, Zuckerberg allegedly entered into an oral contract with Narendra and the
Winklevosses and became a partner in HarvardConnection.
He was given the private server location and password for the unfinished HarvardConnection
website and code, with the understanding that he would finish the programming necessary
for launch.
Zuckerberg allegedly chose to be compensated through an interest in the enterprise.
On November 30, 2003, Zuckerberg told Cameron Winklevoss in an email that he did not expect
completion of the project to be difficult.
Zuckerberg writes: "I read over all the stuff you sent and it seems like it shouldn't take
too long to implement, so we can talk about that after I get all the basic functionality
up tomorrow night."
The next day, on December 1, 2003, Zuckerberg sent another email to the HarvardConnection
team.
"I put together one of the two registration pages so I have everything working on my system
now.
I'll keep you posted as I patch stuff up and it starts to become completely functional."
On December 4, 2003, Zuckerberg writes: "Sorry I was unreachable tonight.
I just got about three of your missed calls.
I was working on a problem set."
On December 10, 2003: "The week has been pretty busy thus far, so I haven't gotten a chance
to do much work on the site or even think about it really, so I think it's probably
best to postpone meeting until we have more to discuss.
I'm also really busy tomorrow so I don't think I'd be able to meet then anyway."
A week later: "Sorry I have not been reachable for the past few days.
I've basically been in the lab the whole time working on a cs problem set which I'm still
not finished with."
On December 17, 2003, Zuckerberg met with the Winklevosses and Narendra in his dorm
room, allegedly confirming his interest and assuring them that the site was almost complete.
On the whiteboard in his room, Zuckerberg allegedly had scrawled multiple lines of code
under the heading “Harvard Connection,” however, this would be the only time they
saw any of his work.
On January 8, 2004, Zuckerberg emailed to say he was "completely swamped with work [that]
week" but had "made some of the changes ... and they seem[ed] to be working great" on his
computer.
He said he could discuss the site starting the following Tuesday, on January 13, 2004.
On January 11, 2004, Zuckerberg registered the domain name thefacebook.com.
On January 12, 2004, Zuckerberg e-mailed Eduardo Saverin, saying that the Facebook site [thefacebook.com]
was almost complete and that they should discuss marketing strategies.
Two days later, on January 14, 2004, Zuckerberg met again with the HarvardConnection team;
however, he allegedly failed to disclose registering the domain name thefacebook.com or developing
a competing social networking website.
Rather, he allegedly reported progress on HarvardConnection, told the team he would
continue to work on it, and would email the group later in the week.
On February 4, 2004, Zuckerberg launched thefacebook.com, a social network for Harvard students, designed
to expand to other schools around the country.
On February 6, 2004, the Winklevosses and Narendra first learned of thefacebook.com
while reading a press release in the Harvard student newspaper The Harvard Crimson.
According to Gao, who looked at the HarvardConnection code afterward, Zuckerberg had left the HarvardConnection
code incomplete and non-functional, with a registration that did not connect with the
back-end connections.
On February 10, 2004, the Winklevosses and Narendra sent Zuckerberg a cease and desist
letter.
They also lodged a complaint with the Harvard administration regarding what they viewed
as a violation of the university’s honor code and student handbook.
The Harvard Administrative Board and university president Larry Summers reportedly viewed
the matter to be outside of the university's jurisdiction.
President Summers advised the HarvardConnection team to take their matter to the courts.
Leaked instant messages Between November 30, 2003, and February 4,
2004, Zuckerberg exchanged a total of 52 emails with the Harvard Connection team and engaged
in multiple in-person meetings.
During the same period of time, Zuckerberg engaged in multiple electronic instant message
communications with people outside of the HarvardConnection team.
On March 5, 2010, certain electronic instant messages from Mark Zuckerberg's hard drive
were leaked to the public.
On September 20, 2010, Facebook confirmed the authenticity of these leaked instant messages
in a New Yorker article.
The HarvardConnection team subsequently allegedly formed a partnership The Winklevoss Chang
Group with i2hub, joining the popular peer-to-peer service with ConnectU.
The partnership promoted their properties through bus advertisements and press releases.
i2hub integrated its popular software with ConnectU's website as part of the partnership.
The team also jointly launched several projects and initiatives.
Facebook lawsuits In 2004, ConnectU filed a lawsuit against
Facebook alleging that creator Mark Zuckerberg had broken an oral contract with it.
The suit alleged that Zuckerberg had copied ConnectU's idea and illegally used source
code intended for the website Zuckerberg was hired to develop.
Facebook countersued with respect to Social Butterfly, a The Winklevoss Chang Group project.
The countersuit named among the defendants ConnectU, Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss,
Divya Narendra, and Wayne Chang, founder of i2hub.
An agreement settling both cases was reached in February, 2008, with the Winklevoss party
receiving $20 million in cash and $45 million in Facebook stock.
In May 2010, however, ConnectU accused Facebook of misrepresenting the value of the stock
that it turned over to the ConnectU plaintiffs as part of the settlement and sought to void
the settlement.
ConnectU alleged that the value of the stock was $11 million rather than $45 million, as
represented by Facebook at the time of settlement.
As a result, the total settlement value would have been $31 million, rather than the $65
million reported.
On August 26, 2010, the New York Times reported that Facebook shares were then trading at
$76 per share in the secondary market, putting the value of the total settlement at close
to $120 million.
If the lawsuit to revise the settlement were to succeed, the settlement value would rise
to $466 million.
In April, 2011, Ninth Circuit judge Alex Kozinski opined that "[a]t some point, litigation must
come to an end.
... That point has now been reached."
The twins' lawyer said they will seek a rehearing with the entire appeals court bench.
In June 2011 it was announced that a decision to pursue the case in the Supreme Court had
been withdrawn.
Quinn Emanuel lawsuits One of ConnectU's law firms, Quinn Emanuel,
inadvertently disclosed the confidential settlement amount in marketing material by printing "WON
$65 million settlement against Facebook".
Quinn Emanuel sought $13 million as its contingency fee related to the original settlement.
ConnectU fired Quinn Emanuel and sued the law firm for malpractice.
On August 25, 2010, an arbitration panel ruled that Quinn Emanuel "earned its full contingency
fee."
The panel also found that Quinn Emanuel committed no malpractice.
The Winklevoss Chang Group lawsuit On December 21, 2009, i2hub founder Wayne
Chang and The i2hub Organization launched a lawsuit against ConnectU and its founders,
Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra, seeking 50% of the settlement
proceeds from the original lawsuit.
The complaint says "The Winklevosses and Howard Winklevoss filed [a] patent application, U.S.
Patent Application No 20060212395, on or around March 15, 2005, but did not list Chang as
a co-inventor.
It also states "Through this litigation, Chang asserts his ownership interest in The Winklevoss
Chang Group and ConnectU, including the settlement proceeds."
Lee Gesmer of Gesmer Updegrove, LLP posted the detailed 33-page complaint online.
On May 13, 2011, it was reported that Judge Peter Lauriat made a ruling against the Winklevosses.
Chang's case against them could proceed.
The Winklevosses had argued that the court lacks jurisdiction because the settlement
with Facebook has not been distributed and therefore Chang hasn't suffered any injury.
Judge Lauriat wrote, "The flaw in this argument is that defendants appear to conflate loss
of the settlement proceed with loss of rights.
Chang alleges that he has received nothing in return for the substantial benefits he
provided to ConnectU, including the value of his work, as well as i2hub's users and
goodwill."
Lauriat also wrote that, although Chang's claims to the settlement are "too speculative
to confer standing, his claims with respect to an ownership in ConnectU are not.
They constitute an injury separate and distinct from his possible share of the settlement
proceeds.
The court concludes that Chang has pled sufficient facts to confer standing with respect to his
claims against the Winklevoss defendants."
Rowing Winklevoss began rowing at the age of 15,
encouraged by family friends and the example of a neighbor, Ethan Ayer, who rowed at Harvard
University and Cambridge University.
He began rowing at the Saugatuck Rowing Club on the Saugatuck River in 1997.
His first coach was Irishman James Mangan who coached him and his brother throughout
high school.
Winklevoss' high school did not have a crew.
In his junior year, he and his identical twin brother, Cameron Winklevoss, co-founded the
crew program at their high school.
In the summer of 1999, he made the United States Junior National Rowing Team, competing
in the coxed pair event with his brother at the Junior World Rowing Championships in Plovdiv,
Bulgaria.
Tyler's rowing discipline is sweep rowing.
He lists Italian cyclist Mario Cipollini and Italian rowers the Abbagnale brothers as the
most influential people in his sporting career.
Harvard Winklevoss rowed at Harvard University for
4 years under coach Harry Parker, while completing his undergraduate studies.
In 2004, he sat 5-seat in the "engine room" of the Harvard men's varsity heavyweight eight
boat.
The 2004 crew was nicknamed the "God Squad" because, according to Winklevoss, some of
them believed in God while the rest believed they were god.
As a Harvard Crimson in 2004, they thought he helped the "God Squad" win the Eastern
Sprints, the Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championship, and the Harvard-Yale Regatta
to cap-off an undefeated collegiate racing season.
In the summer of 2004, Winklevoss and the "God Squad" traveled to Lucerne, Switzerland
to compete in the Lucerne Rowing World Cup.
They defeated the 2004 British and French Olympic eight boats in the semi-final to earn
a spot in the grand-final, in which they placed 6th.
The team then traveled to the Henley Royal Regatta where they competed in the Grand Challenge
Cup.
Winklevoss helped his team defeat the Cambridge University Blue Boat in the semi-final before
they fell to the Dutch Olympic eight boat team in the final by 2⁄3 of a boat length.
The Dutch team went on to win the Olympic silver medal at the Athens Olympic Games a
month later.
2007 Pan American Games In 2007, Winklevoss was named to the United
States Pan American Team and competed at the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil.
He won a silver medal in the men's coxless four event and stroked the men's eight boat
to a gold medal on the Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas. 2008 Olympic Games
In 2008, Winklevoss was named to the United States Olympic Team and competed at the 2008
Olympic Games in Beijing, China.
He rowed with his brother in the men's coxless pair event which took place at the Shunyi
Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park.
The brothers were coached by the renowned Ted Nash.
In their first heat, they failed to finish in the top three and did not qualify for the
Semifinals.
In the Repechage, they took first, advancing them to the Semifinals.
A strong finish in Semifinal 2 put them in the Final.
They ended up finishing sixth out of the fourteen countries which had qualified for the Olympics.
Popular culture Tyler and his brother Cameron are both played
by actor Armie Hammer in The Social Network, a film directed by David Fincher about the
founding of Facebook.
Actor Josh Pence was the body double for Tyler with Hammer's face superimposed.
The twins were depicted on the cartoon comedy show The Simpsons in the eleventh episode
of Season 23 in the episode called "The D'oh-cial Network" which aired on January 15, 2012.
The Winklevoss twins are seen rowing in the 2012 Olympic Games against Marge Simpson's
sisters Patty and Selma.
There is a reference made to the $65 million Facebook settlement.
References
External links Tyler Winklevoss on Twitter