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Meet the Guys Who Started Stanford’s Facebook in 1999

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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.

Via: Mashable

Prateek Panda

Prateek is the Founder of TheTechPanda. He's passionate about technology startups and entrepreneurship and enjoys speaking to new founders every day. Prateek has also been consistently regarded as one of the top marketing experts in the region.