Chapter 596: Need funding? No problem!

"Damn it, I've been so busy lately I almost forgot about this."

Sitting on his private jet, Martin slapped his thigh in frustration, realizing he'd been neglecting his former little brother.

The plane landed at Boston International Airport.

Without delay, Martin boarded the Rolls-Royce sent by the hotel.

"Take me to Harvard," he told the driver.

When Martin appeared outside Mark Zuckerberg's dorm and knocked on the door, Mark opened it in a daze.

"No way—Martin? Aren't you in Los Angeles?"

Mark had assumed Martin would arrive tomorrow or the day after. He wasn't expecting him to show up just a few hours later.

"Haha, Mark, you're my brother! Of course I'm gonna take your matter seriously. Come on—tell me everything."

Mark was deeply moved. He immediately pulled Martin into the dorm.

"It's not that urgent," he said. "Let me introduce you to a few friends first."

Martin thought to himself: Not urgent? I'm the one in a hurry here!

Still, he greeted everyone with a warm smile.

"Hey, Dustin."

"Hello, Mr. Meyers."

"Just call me Martin."

"Hi, Chris."

"Hello, Mr. Meyers."

"Martin, please."

After the greetings, Martin sat down, and Mark was already booting up his laptop. Though he appeared calm, his eagerness was obvious.

"Martin, I built a website last year. I want to take it to the next level. Have a look."

(Author Note: For plot purposes, the founding of Facebook has been slightly delayed.)

Mark opened his laptop, clicked an icon, and began navigating through the site as he explained.

"It's called Facebook. I created it with Dustin and Chris. Initially, it was just meant to be an online campus directory, where students could upload their own info—avoiding the red tape from schools and legal departments. I wanted to connect students more freely…"

"MySpace has something similar, but on MySpace, people can put whatever they want in their bios—whether it's real or not. That's both a strength and a flaw. I figured if we added some guardrails, users might be more willing to share, since the platform would feel safer and more structured…"

"I want Facebook to become a social platform—like an open operating system. We'll only provide about 10% of the content. The rest? Created by the users themselves…"

"What makes Facebook unique is how it maintains users' personal networks. Almost all other features are built by third-party developers…"

"The idea was, as social networks grow exponentially, every programmer would get a chance to shine. A solo developer's app could explode overnight…"

"But what we didn't expect was that in just six months, Facebook had 20 million users and over 25,000 apps running on it…"

"Our servers can't handle it anymore…"

"How much investment do you need?"

Mark was caught off guard by Martin's sudden interruption.

Martin laughed, then asked again, "You need funding? No problem. How much do you need—and how much equity can you offer?"

Mark was once again moved to the core. Now that's a true bro. Money's like pocket change to him.

He looked at Dustin and Chris for a moment. Dustin discreetly raised one finger… hesitated… then changed it to two.

After a moment of thought, Mark said, "Actually, we already have an investor—Eduardo Saverin. He provided our seed funding, $25,000, and received 30% of the shares."

Hearing this, Martin felt even more regretful about having neglected Mark. $25,000 for 30%? That's a steal. He practically walked into the bargain of a lifetime.

"So we'd need Eduardo here to discuss this," Mark said sheepishly. "I didn't think you'd show up this soon, so we didn't prep anything."

"No worries—I can wait. Give him a call," Martin said graciously.

Mark dialed him up. Eduardo Saverin, who was out on business, immediately decided to rush back upon hearing Martin was there.

It might seem odd for a college student to be "out on business," but Eduardo came from a wealthy family. His father was in exports and real estate, and their net worth was substantial.

In his first year at Harvard, Eduardo joined the prestigious Phoenix-SK Club. By his second year, he was a member of the Harvard Investment Association.

He'd started dabbling in business with $50,000 from his family back in high school.

He's not just Facebook's early investor—he's also its CFO and business manager, currently focused on advertising the site.

"Mark, I'll be right there. Just wait for me!"

Less than fifteen minutes later, Eduardo arrived at the dorm.

As soon as he saw Martin, his eyes lit up. He strode over and extended a hand.

"Hello, Mr. Meyers. I'm Eduardo Saverin, Mark's partner. It's an honor to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too."

Compared to Dustin and Chris, Eduardo was far more socially adept. Within minutes, he was deep in conversation and laughing with Martin.

But Chris Hughes, ever the observant one, noticed something: Martin never told Eduardo to call him by his first name.

Eduardo, meanwhile, began to feel something was off.

He had intended to use their small talk to assess Martin's personality—to gain leverage for the negotiations.

But things didn't go as planned. The more Martin spoke, the more Eduardo found himself revealing—without even noticing it. Before long, he'd shared far too much.

That's when it hit him: this guy wasn't just a movie star—he was a seasoned businessman.

Martin's success clearly wasn't just luck.