Mark Jonathan Pincus (born February 13, 1966)[3] is an American Internetentrepreneur known as the founder ofZynga, a mobile social gaming company. Pincus also founded the startups Freeloader, Inc.,Tribe Networks, andSupport.com.[4] Pincus was the CEO of Zynga until July 2013, then again from 2015 to 2016.[5]
Pincus was named 2009 "CEO of the Year"[6] atThe Crunchies technology awards[7] and a year later was named Founder of the Year at the 2010 ceremony.[8] Zynga is considered to be the pioneer of the social gaming industry.[9] In 2011, Zynga went public with a $1 billioninitial public offering.[10] Pincus co-founded Reinvent Capital in 2018, an investment firm, withReid Hoffman and hedge fund manager Michael Thompson.[11][12] He co-created theStanford Graduate School of Business course on Product Management with Professor Amir Goldberg.[13]
Pincus' family lives in theLincoln Park neighborhood ofChicago. He is the son of Donna (née Forman) and Theodore Pincus,[14][15] and isJewish.[16] His father was a business columnist and public relations adviser to CEOs and politicians,[17] and his mother was an artist andarchitect.[18]
Before he became an entrepreneur, Pincus worked in venture capital and financial services for six years. After graduating from Wharton, Pincus spent two years working as an analyst in the New Media Group atLazard Freres & Co.[24][25] After that time, he moved to Hong Kong, where he was a Vice President for Asian Capital Partners for two years.[26][27]
He returned to the United States in order to attend Harvard Business School (HBS) where he was a contemporary ofChris Hohn,Guy Spier[28] andChris Shumway.[29] He graduated in 1993[30] and also spent a summer as an associate forBain & Co. in 1992.[31]
After Pincus graduated from Harvard Business School, he took a job as a manager of corporate development atTele-Communications, Inc., which is now AT&T Cable.[32] A year later, he joined Columbia Capital as vice president, where he led investments in new media and software startups in Washington, D.C. for a year.[33][29]
In 1995, Pincus founded his first startup, Freeloader, Inc.[34] Freeloader was backed byFred Wilson andSoftbank.[35] The company was acquired seven months after its launch by Individual, Inc., for $38 million.[36][27]Sean Parker worked as a summer intern at Freeloader when he was 14 years old. He later went on to co-foundNapster, and Pincus became Napster's first investor with an investment of $100,000.[37][38]
He then started his second company, Support.com, in August 1997. As Chairman and CEO, Pincus built the company into a leading provider of help desk automation software. The company went public in July 2000 at a $1.5 billion valuation.[39] In 2002, the company changed its name from Support.com to SupportSoft, Inc.[40]
In 2003, at age 37, Pincus founded his third startup, Tribe.net, an early social network.[41] Tribe.net partnered with major local newspapers and was backed byThe Washington Post,Knight Ridder Digital, andMayfield Fund andGuy Spier,. In 2007,Cisco Systems acquired the core technology of Tribe.net to develop a social networking platform for its digital media services group.[42]
In 2003, Pincus andReid Hoffman purchased theSix Degrees patent, a broad, sweeping patent that describes a social network service that is the heart of social networks from the extinct Sixdegrees.com company for $700,000.[43][44] Pincus and Hoffman stated at the time that their objective in buying the patent was to protect innovation in social networking and to prevent large companies from interfering with this.
In July 2007 Pincus founded his fourth company, Zynga Inc., named after his deceasedAmerican bulldog Zinga.[55][56][57][58] Zynga developed games on top of social networks such as Facebook,Myspace, andBebo.
In 2011, Pincus took the company public with a $1 billion IPO.[59] Pincus was CEO of the company from 2007 to 2013.[60] On July 1, 2013, Zynga recruitedDon Mattrick, the former president of Interactive Entertainment Business atMicrosoft, to succeed Pincus as CEO.[61] Pincus remained actively involved in the company as Chairman of the Board and Chief Product Officer,[62] but stepped down from his role as chief product officer to focus on his role as chairman of the board, the company announced in April 2014.[2]
Pincus returned to the role of CEO of Zynga in April 2015.[63] On March 7, 2016, Pincus stepped down as CEO, but continued his association with Zynga as Executive Chairman of the Board withFrank Gibeau in the role of CEO.[64] In 2018, citing his confidence in Zynga's management, Pincus voluntarily reduced his voting rights in the company from 70% to 10% and stepped back to a non-executive chairman role.[65][66][67]
In November 2020, the group launched its second SPAC, Reinvent Technology Partners Z, which raised $230 million in its IPO.[85] In March 2021, RTPZ announced a merger with insurance technology companyHippo Insurance.[86] Hippo provides home insurance in the United States, and uses artificial intelligence and big data to aggregate and analyze property information.[87][88][89]
In February 2021, Pincus and Reinvent partners announced its third SPAC, Reinvent Technology Partners Y, raising $977.5 million in its IPO.[90] In July 2021, RTPY announced a plan to merge with Pittsburgh-basedAurora Innovation, which is developing Level 4 self-driving technology for trucks and passenger vehicles.[91]
Pincus is a former member[92] of the board of thePresidio Trust, a federal agency that operates and maintains the Presidio as part of the Golden Gate Recreation Area.[93] He was appointed to the board byPresident Obama in 2017.[94]
In October 2009, Pincus startedZynga.org.Archived 2010-07-17 at theWayback Machine. Web 2 Summit. Retrieved on 2011-11-13. Zynga.org has since raised more than $20 million[95] for more than 50 international nonprofits[96][97] by occasionally selling virtual goods for charitable causes.[98] During his time at Zynga Pincus created features for several gaming sites that allowed players to donate to theSan Francisco Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA); two organizations inHaiti, FATEM andFonkoze, raising $427,000 in less than three weeks in October 2009. In January 2010 Zynga.org had raised $1.5 million in five days forHaiti Earthquake relief. The money was distributed within just two days.[99] The total Zynga.org raised during 2010 for earthquake relief in Haiti was $3 million. In 2011 they raised an additional $2 million for rescue efforts in Japan after the earthquake and tsunami that devastated the country.[100]
On March 11, 2011, Zynga announced that 100 percent of the proceeds from the purchase of virtual goods from more than seven of its games would go toward Japan'sSave the Children Earthquake Emergency Fund.[101][102] During the 2012 holiday season, Zynga.org partnered withToys for Tots in its largest charitable campaign not related to disaster relief. The campaign raised $745,000, with 100 percent of the purchase price of certain virtual goods going to Toys for Tots.[95]
In 2014, Zynga raised $1 million forWater.org, aKansas City,Missouri-based charity that funds clean water projects in developing countries.[103]
Zynga announced in June 2020 that they created a $25 million fund to invest in charitable causes and educational organizations that promote diversity and inclusion.[104][105]
In February 2020, Pincus donated $3 million toRoden Crater, a large scale Land artwork byJames Turrell within a dormant volcano in the Painted Desert region of Northern Arizona. The contributions bring the project closer to completion which the artist hopes to open within the next five years.[109]
In April 2020, Pincus, Finnish entrepreneurJyri Engeström and biotech executive Cyrus Harmon, organized and financed community-wide COVID-19 testing in their hometown ofBolinas, California. It was one of the first cases of community-wide testing in the US.[110] Through their efforts Bolinas was able to test every one of its 1,600 residents for COVID-19 for free. Pincus donated the first $100,000 for the initiative, since it was not covered by government funds.[111]
Pincus donated over $100,000 to Canal Alliance in June 2020. Canal Alliance is a nonprofit champion of immigrants who are challenged by a lack of resources and an unfamiliar environment.[112]
Pincus describes his views as libertarian.[113] He co-hosted a fundraiser forKamala Harris's 2016 Senate campaign[114] and in 2020, along with many other Silicon Valley tech billionaires, gave the legal maximum dollar amount to supportJoe Biden's presidential campaign.[115] In July 2024, Pincus wrote that "Biden looks even riskier than Trump," disagreed with calls for Harris to replace Biden on the Democratic ticket, and praised aspects of Donald Trump's presidency.[113]
In 2008, Pincus married Alison Gelb, who foundedOne Kings Lane, a furniture and home accessories sales website that was sold toBed Bath & Beyond in 2016. They have three children, twin girls and a boy, and live in thePacific Heights neighborhood ofSan Francisco.[116] In March 2017, the couple divorced.[117]
Pincus spends his time away from work with his daughters, cycling,[118] surfing, playing soccer[119] and doing yoga.[120]
^"Mark Pincus". CNBC. 22 May 2012.Archived from the original on 5 December 2012. Retrieved18 February 2024.
^Miguel Helft (July 24, 2010)."Will Zynga Become the Google of Games?".New York Times.Archived from the original on November 10, 2016. Retrieved2010-07-24.A serial entrepreneur, he sold his first company, Freeloader, an early Internet broadcast service, for $38 million, and took public his second, a business software maker called Support.com.
^Rivlin, Gary (24 January 2005)."Friendster, Love and Money".Technology. The New York Times.Archived from the original on 20 January 2013. Retrieved4 February 2013.
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