Meet the Guys Who Started Stanford’s Facebook in 1999

Jesse Draper is creator and host of The Valley Girl Show, through which she’s become a spokesperson for startups and helped pioneer the way of new media content distribution. Formerly a Nickelodeon star, Draper is now CEO of Valley Girl‚ where she oversees the show and runs technology blog Lalawag.com.
Gentilello & Truong created the Initial Facebook Idea Gentilello & Truong created the Initial Facebook Idea

In 1999, Lawrence Gentilello and Tuyen Truong started something based on Stanford University’s facebook called, “The Facebook” online.

They scanned in more than 7,000 student pictures to a database online which they cross-referenced with each student’s personal information: address, phone number and email.

What happened next sounds all too familiar: Stanford University shut it down.
“We bowed to the University pressure and took the site down,” says Gentilello. “They were scared it was going to be used for stalking.”

To think what this could have been….Not to worry, they are on to the next thing: screen-sharing in less than 5 seconds with their new Y-Combinator company, Screenleap.

You can share your screen to any device for free. People use it for booking travel together, overseeing employees and even, ironically, sharing pictures on Facebook.

Truong and Gentilello believe that screen sharing will soon be as quick and easy to use as email. They plan to make money by adding premium features.

Source: Mashable