Age, Biography and Wiki

Shawn Fanning is an American computer programmer, entrepreneur, and angel investor. He is best known as the co-founder of the pioneering file-sharing computer service Napster. He is also the founder of the social media platform Rupture, which was acquired by Electronic Arts in 2008. Fanning was born on November 22, 1980 in Brockton, Massachusetts. He attended Northeastern University, where he studied computer science. In 1999, Fanning co-founded Napster, a file-sharing computer service that allowed users to share music files over the internet. The service quickly became popular, and was eventually shut down due to copyright infringement. In 2003, Fanning founded Rupture, a social media platform that allowed gamers to connect with each other. The company was acquired by Electronic Arts in 2008. In addition to his entrepreneurial pursuits, Fanning is also an angel investor. He has invested in a number of startups, including Path, a mobile photo-sharing service, and Airtime, a video-chatting service. As of 2021, Shawn Fanning's net worth is estimated to be roughly $50 million.

Popular As N/A
Occupation Computer programmer, entrepreneur, angel investor
Age 43 years old
Zodiac Sign Scorpio
Born 22 November 1980
Birthday 22 November
Birthplace Brockton, Massachusetts
Nationality United States

We recommend you to check the complete list of Famous People born on 22 November. He is a member of famous with the age 43 years old group. He one of the Richest who was born in United States.

Shawn Fanning Height, Weight & Measurements

At 43 years old, Shawn Fanning height not available right now. We will update Shawn Fanning's Height, weight, Body Measurements, Eye Color, Hair Color, Shoe & Dress size soon as possible.

Physical Status
Height Not Available
Weight Not Available
Body Measurements Not Available
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Who Is Shawn Fanning's Wife?

His wife is Jessica Wigsmoen

Family
Parents Not Available
Wife Jessica Wigsmoen
Sibling Not Available
Children Not Available

Shawn Fanning Net Worth

His net worth has been growing significantly in 2022-2023. So, how much is Shawn Fanning worth at the age of 43 years old? Shawn Fanning’s income source is mostly from being a successful . He is from United States. We have estimated Shawn Fanning's net worth , money, salary, income, and assets.

Net worth US$124 million (2019)
Salary in 2023 Under Review
Net Worth in 2022 Pending
Salary in 2022 Under Review
House Not Available
Cars Not Available
Source of Income

Shawn Fanning Social Network

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Timeline

2013

In 2013 Fanning founded Helium Systems together with Amir Haleem, and Sean Carey. In December 2014, the company announced that it has raised $16 million in funding led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from FirstMark Capital, Digital Garage, Marc Benioff, SV Angel, and Slow Ventures among others.

Fanning and Napster were the subject of Alex Winter's documentary Downloaded in 2013.

2012

Airtime launched in June 2012 at a disastrous public event where Parker and Fanning paid huge amounts of money to have celebrities present but the product repeatedly crashed and ultimately failed to work. Greg Sandoval of CNET commented, "To launch his new start-up, Sean Parker should have spent less of his billions on celebrity guests and more of it on fixing his technology."

2011

The site in its initial free P2P incarnation was shut down in 2001 after the company's unsuccessful appeal of court orders arising from its encouraging the illegal sharing of copyrighted material. A paid subscription version of the site followed, and was purchased by Rhapsody on December 1, 2011. Following his involvement with Napster, he joined, and invested in, a number of early-stage technology startup companies.

In 2011 Fanning reunited with Napster cofounder Sean Parker to found Airtime.com. Some of the investors are Ron Conway, Michael Arrington, and Ashton Kutcher. Fanning serves as CEO and Parker as executive chairman.

2010

A few months after Fanning was laid off from Electronic Arts, he started a new company called Path.com. In January 2010, Dave Morin announced he was leaving Facebook, where he was a Senior Platform Manager, to join Fanning and become CEO at Path.

2008

In early 2008, Fanning appeared in a Volkswagen commercial directed by Roman Coppola, in which he poked fun at his file-sharing past.

2007

The Rupture project was announced in 2007 with seed funding, and CrunchBase notes the date Shawn officially became CEO of Rupture was October 2, 2007.

2006

In December 2006, Fanning, along with Co-founder Jon Baudanza, developed Rupture, a social networking tool designed to handle the task of publishing gamers' individual profiles to a communal space and facilitating communication between World of Warcraft players. Rupture was later acquired by Electronic Arts for $30 million. Fanning's career at Electronic Arts was short-lived as a round of layoffs in November 2009 included him and his team at Rupture.

2003

Fanning had a cameo appearance as himself in the 2003 film The Italian Job. In the film, Seth Green's character Lyle accused Fanning of stealing Napster from him while he was taking a nap in their Northeastern University dorm room. Although other characters see this as mere bragging, a scene shows Fanning in fact creeping over Lyle's sleeping body and stealing a 3-1/2" floppy disk.

2002

In 2002, Fanning was named to the MIT Technology Review TR100 as one of the top 100 innovators in the world under the age of 35. In 2003, he opened a new company, Snocap, along with Jordan Mendelson (Napster's Chief Architect), and Ron Conway. The company aspired to be a legitimate marketplace for digital media. However, their partners and the public did not respond well. Customer support was poor, and technical issues were numerous. One of their primary partners, CD Baby, wrote a scathing account of their relationship. In late 2007, Snocap laid off 60% of its workforce. ValleyWag wrote an article that Fanning had long left Snocap and began to work on another venture, Rupture. The ValleyWag article stated that the failure was largely due to Snocap's CEO Rusty Rueff and that of former VP Engineerng Dave Rowley, who "made a mess of engineering before he was fired". Snocap was looking to sell itself and fast. In 2008, they found a buyer; imeem acquired Snocap in a fire sale.

2000

In 2000, Fanning appeared as a presenter at the MTV Video Music Awards. He appeared wearing a Metallica T-shirt as the Metallica v. Napster, Inc. lawsuit had been filed a few months prior. "For Whom the Bell Tolls" played in the background. When asked where he got the shirt, Fanning stated, "a friend of mine shared it with me." Lars Ulrich was sitting in the audience, and his reaction was shown as feigned boredom.

In October 2000, Fanning was featured on the cover of Time magazine.

1999

On June 1, 1999, Fanning released a preliminary beta program of Napster and soon, hundreds of college students at Northeastern were trading music. Sean Parker was the co-founder.

1980

Shawn Fanning (born November 22, 1980) is an American computer programmer, entrepreneur, and angel investor. He developed Napster, one of the first popular peer-to-peer ("P2P") file sharing platforms, in 1999. The popularity of Napster was widespread and Fanning was featured on the cover of Time magazine.