.jpg) Winklevoss in 2015 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | (1981-08-21)August 21, 1981 (age 43) Southampton,New York | |||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | Harvard University (BA) Christ Church, Oxford (MBA) | |||||||||||||||||
| Height | 6 ft 5 in (196 cm) | |||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 220 lb (100 kg) | |||||||||||||||||
| Relative | Cameron Winklevoss (brother) | |||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Rowing | |||||||||||||||||
| College team | Harvard College Oxford University | |||||||||||||||||
| Team | United States Olympic Team | |||||||||||||||||
| Achievements and titles | ||||||||||||||||||
| Olympic finals | 6th place,Beijing Olympics | |||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Tyler Howard Winklevoss (born August 21, 1981) is an American investor, founder ofWinklevoss Capital Management andGeminicryptocurrency exchange and formerOlympicrower. Winklevoss co-founded HarvardConnection (later renamedConnectU) along with his brotherCameron Winklevoss and aHarvard classmate of theirs,Divya Narendra. In 2004, the Winklevoss brothers suedMark Zuckerberg, claiming he stole their ConnectU idea to create thesocial networking service siteFacebook, and received $65 million as settlement. As a rower, Winklevoss competed in the men's pair rowing event at the2008 Summer Olympics with his identical twin brother and rowing partner, Cameron.
Tyler Howard Winklevoss was born on August 21, 1981, inSouthampton,New York, and raised inGreenwich,Connecticut.[1] He is the son of Carol (née Leonard) andHoward Winklevoss,[2][3] who started an asset management company overseeing hundreds of millions of dollars, and is an author[4] and professor ofactuarial science at theWharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Winklevoss attendedGreenwich Country Day School and graduated fromBrunswick School.[5] Winklevoss studiedclassical piano for 12 years, beginning at age 6.[6] He studiedLatin andAncient Greek in high school. During his junior year, he and his twin brotherCameron founded the crew program.[7][8]
On June 14, 2002, Winklevoss's older sister, Amanda, died from cardiac arrest induced by drug overdose.[6]
He matriculated toHarvard College in 2000 and majored ineconomics, earning anAB degree and graduating in 2004.[9] At Harvard, he was a member of the men's varsitycrew, thePorcellian Club[10] and theHasty Pudding Club.
In 2009, Winklevoss began a graduate business study at theSaïd Business School at theUniversity of Oxford and completed anMBA in 2010.[11] While at Oxford, he was a member ofChrist Church,[12] anOxford Blue, and rowed in the losingBlue Boat in the156thOxford-Cambridge Boat Race.[13][14][15]
In December 2002, Winklevoss, along with his brotherCameron Winklevoss and fellow Harvard classmateDivya Narendra, sought a better way to connect with fellow students atHarvard University and other universities.[16] The three conceived of asocial network forHarvard students named HarvardConnection;[17] the concept ultimately expanded to other schools around the country.[18][19][20] What made ConnectU different from other social media platforms was the need to have a specific domain that matched the 'club' you were getting into, likeharvard.edu. The idea was to make each school its own club, in which students could connect and be exclusive, similar to the infamous finals clubs at Harvard. In January 2003, they enlisted the help of fellowHarvard student,programmer and friend Sanjay Mavinkurve to begin building HarvardConnection.[21] Mavinkurve commenced work on HarvardConnection but departed the project in spring 2003 when he graduated and went to work forGoogle.[22]
After the departure of Mavinkurve, the Winklevosses and Narendra approached Narendra's friend,Harvard student andprogrammer Victor Gao, to work on HarvardConnection.[21] Gao, a senior inMather House, opted not to become a partner in the venture, instead agreeing to be paid in awork for hire capacity.[20] He was paid $400 for his work on the website code during the summer and fall of 2003, when he left the project.[19]
In November 2003, at the suggestion of Victor Gao, the Winklevosses and Narendra approachedMark Zuckerberg about joining the HarvardConnection team.[23] The previous HarvardConnection programmers had reportedly made progress on coding front-end pages, the registration system, a database, back-end coding, and a way users could connect with each other, which Gao called a "handshake".[20] In early November, Narendra emailed Zuckerberg saying, "We're very deep into developing a site which we would like you to be a part of and ... which we know will make some waves on campus."[20] Within days, Zuckerberg was talking to the HarvardConnection team and preparing to take over programming duties from Gao.[20] On the evening of November 25, 2003,[24] the Winklevosses and Narendra met with Zuckerberg in the dining hall ofHarvard'sKirkland House, where they explained to Zuckerberg the HarvardConnection website, the plan to expand to other schools after launch, the confidential nature of the project, and the importance of getting there first.[18][20] During the meeting, Zuckerberg allegedly entered into anoral contract with Narendra and the Winklevosses and became a partner in HarvardConnection.[25] He was given the private server location andpassword for the unfinished HarvardConnection website and code,[19] with the understanding that he would finish the programming necessary for launch.[26] Zuckerberg allegedly chose to be compensated through an interest in the enterprise (sweat equity).[27]
On November 30, 2003, Zuckerberg toldCameron Winklevoss in an email that he did not expect completion of the project to be difficult. Zuckerberg writes: "I read over all the stuff you sent and it seems like it shouldn't take too long to implement, so we can talk about that after I get all the basic functionality up tomorrow night."[23] The next day, on December 1, 2003, Zuckerberg sent another email to the HarvardConnection team. "I put together one of the two registration pages so I have everything working on my system now. I'll keep you posted as I patch stuff up and it starts to become completely functional."[18] On December 4, 2003, Zuckerberg writes: "Sorry I was unreachable tonight. I just got about three of your missed calls. I was working on aproblem set."[18] On December 10, 2003: "The week has been pretty busy thus far, so I haven't gotten a chance to do much work on the site or even think about it really, so I think it's probably best to postpone meeting until we have more to discuss. I'm also really busy tomorrow so I don't think I'd be able to meet then anyway."[18] A week later: "Sorry I have not been reachable for the past few days. I've basically been in the lab the whole time working on a cs problem set which I'm still not finished with."[18] On December 17, 2003,[24] Zuckerberg met with the Winklevosses and Narendra in his dorm room, allegedly confirming his interest and assuring them that the site was almost complete.[20] On the whiteboard in his room, Zuckerberg allegedly had scrawled multiple lines of code under the heading "Harvard Connection," however, this would be the only time they saw any of his work.[20] On January 8, 2004, Zuckerberg emailed to say he was "completely swamped with work [that] week" but had "made some of the changes ... and they seem[ed] to be working great" on his computer. He said he could discuss the site starting the following Tuesday, on January 13, 2004.[23][28] On January 11, 2004, Zuckerberg registered the domain namethefacebook.com.[29] On January 12, 2004, Zuckerberg e-mailedEduardo Saverin, saying that the Facebook site [thefacebook.com] was almost complete and that they should discuss marketing strategies.[20] Two days later, on January 14, 2004,[24] Zuckerberg met again with the HarvardConnection team; however, he allegedly failed to disclose registering the domain name thefacebook.com or developing a competingsocial networking website. Rather, he allegedly reported progress on HarvardConnection, told the team he would continue to work on it, and would email the group later in the week.[23] On February 4, 2004, Zuckerberg launchedthefacebook.com, a social network for Harvard students, designed to expand to other schools around the country.[26]
On February 6, 2004, the Winklevosses and Narendra first learned of thefacebook.com while reading a press release in the Harvard student newspaperThe Harvard Crimson.[20] According to Gao, who looked at the HarvardConnection code afterward, Zuckerberg had left the HarvardConnection code incomplete and non-functional, with a registration that did not connect with the back-end connections.[clarification needed][21] On February 10, 2004, the Winklevosses and Narendra sent Zuckerberg acease and desist letter.[30] They also lodged a complaint with the Harvard administration regarding what they viewed as a violation of the university's honor code and student handbook.[31] The Harvard Administrative Board and university presidentLarry Summers reportedly viewed the matter to be outside of the university's jurisdiction.[26] President Summers advised the HarvardConnection team to take their matter to the courts.[28]
Between November 30, 2003, and February 4, 2004, Zuckerberg exchanged a total of 52 emails with the Harvard Connection team and engaged in multiple in-person meetings.[28] During the same period of time, Zuckerberg engaged in multiple electronicinstant message communications with people outside of the HarvardConnection team. On March 5, 2010, certain electronic instant messages from Mark Zuckerberg'shard drive were leaked to the public.[18] On September 20, 2010,Facebook confirmed the authenticity of these leaked instant messages in aNew Yorker article.[32]
The HarvardConnection team subsequently allegedly formed a partnershipThe Winklevoss Chang Group withi2hub, joining the popular peer-to-peer service withConnectU. The partnership promoted their properties through bus advertisements and press releases.i2hub integrated its popular software withConnectU's website as part of the partnership. The team also jointly launchedseveral projects and initiatives.[33][34]
In 2004, ConnectU filed a lawsuit against Facebook alleging that creatorMark Zuckerberg had broken itsoral contract. The suit alleged that Zuckerberg had copied ConnectU's idea[35][36] and illegally usedsource code intended for the website Zuckerberg was hired to develop.[28][37][38][39] Facebook countersued with respect to Social Butterfly, aWinklevoss Chang Group project. The countersuit named among the defendantsConnectU, Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss,Divya Narendra, andWayne Chang, founder ofi2hub.[40] An agreement settling both cases was reached in February 2008, with the Winklevoss party receiving $20 million in cash and $45 million in Facebook stock.[41][42] In May 2010, however, ConnectU accused Facebook of misrepresenting the value of the stock that it turned over to the ConnectU plaintiffs as part of the settlement and sought to void the settlement. ConnectU alleged that the value of the stock was $11 million rather than $45 million, as represented by Facebook at the time of settlement.[41] As a result, the total settlement value would have been $31 million, rather than the $65 million reported.[43][44] On August 26, 2010, theNew York Times reported that Facebook shares were then trading at $76 per share in the secondary market, putting the value of the total settlement at close to $120 million.[45][46] If the lawsuit to revise the settlement were to succeed, the settlement value would rise to $466 million.[47] In April 2011,Ninth Circuit judgeAlex Kozinski opined that "[a]t some point, litigation must come to an end. ... That point has now been reached." The twins' lawyer stated that they would seek a rehearing with the entire appeals court bench.[48] In June 2011 it was announced that a decision to pursue the case in the Supreme Court had been withdrawn.[49]
One of ConnectU's law firms, Quinn Emanuel, inadvertently disclosed the confidential settlement amount in marketing material by printing "WON $65 million settlement against Facebook".[50] Quinn Emanuel sought $13 million as its contingency fee related to the original settlement. ConnectU fired Quinn Emanuel and sued the law firm for malpractice.[51] On August 25, 2010, an arbitration panel ruled that Quinn Emanuel "earned its full contingency fee." The panel also found that Quinn Emanuel committed no malpractice.[52]
On December 21, 2009,i2hub founderWayne Chang and The i2hub Organization launched a lawsuit againstConnectU and its founders,Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss, andDivya Narendra, seeking 50% of the settlement proceeds from the original lawsuit.The complaint says"The Winklevosses and Howard Winklevoss filed [a] patent application, U.S. Patent Application No 20060212395, on or around March 15, 2005, but did not list Chang as a co-inventor. It also states "Through this litigation, Chang asserts his ownership interest inThe Winklevoss Chang Group andConnectU, including the settlement proceeds."[34] Lee Gesmer of Gesmer Updegrove, LLP posted thedetailed 33-page complaint online.[33][53]
On May 13, 2011, it was reported that Judge Peter Lauriat made a ruling against the Winklevosses. Chang's case against them could proceed. The Winklevosses had argued that the court lacks jurisdiction because the settlement with Facebook has not been distributed and therefore Chang hasn't suffered any injury. Judge Lauriat wrote, "The flaw in this argument is that defendants appear to conflate loss of the settlement proceed with loss of rights. Chang alleges that he has received nothing in return for the substantial benefits he provided to ConnectU, including the value of his work, as well as i2hub's users and goodwill." Lauriat also wrote that, although Chang's claims to the settlement are "too speculative to confer standing, his claims with respect to an ownership in ConnectU are not. They constitute an injury separate and distinct from his possible share of the settlement proceeds. The court concludes that Chang has pled sufficient facts to confer standing with respect to his claims against the Winklevoss defendants."[54][55][56][57][58][59]
Winklevoss began rowing at the age of 15, encouraged by family friends and the example of a neighbor, Ethan Ayer, who rowed atHarvard University andCambridge University.[7] He began rowing at the Saugatuck Rowing Club on theSaugatuck River in 1997.[60] His first coach wasIrishman James Mangan who coached him and his brother throughout high school.[61] Winklevoss's high school did not have acrew. In his junior year, he and his identical twin brother,Cameron Winklevoss, co-founded the crew program at their high school.[7] In the summer of 1999, he earned a place in the United States Junior National Rowing Team, competing in thecoxed pair event with his brother at theWorld Rowing Junior Championships inPlovdiv,Bulgaria.[61]
Tyler's rowing discipline issweep rowing.[62] He has identified Italian cyclistMario Cipollini and Italian rowers the Abbagnale brothers (Agostino Abbagnale andGiuseppe Abbagnale) as the most influential people in his sporting career.[60]
Winklevoss rowed at Harvard for four years, under coachHarry Parker.[8] In 2004, he sat 5-seat in the "engine room" of theHarvard men'svarsity heavyweighteight boat.[61] The 2004 crew was nicknamed the "God Squad" because, according to Winklevoss, some of them believed in God while the rest believed theywere god.[63] As aHarvard Crimson in 2004, he helped the "God Squad" win theEastern Sprints, theIntercollegiate Rowing Association Championship, and theHarvard–Yale Regatta to complete an undefeated collegiate racing season.[64]
In the summer of 2004, Winklevoss and the "God Squad" traveled toLucerne, Switzerland to compete in theLucerneRowing World Cup. They defeated the 2004British andFrenchOlympiceight boats in the semi-final to earn a spot in the grand-final, in which they placed 6th.[65] The team then traveled to theHenley Royal Regatta where they competed in theGrand Challenge Cup. Winklevoss helped his team defeat theCambridge UniversityBlue Boat in the semi-final before they fell to theDutchOlympiceight boat team (of theHollandia Roeiclub) in the final by2⁄3 of a boat length.[66] The Dutch team went on to win theOlympicsilver medal at theAthens Olympic Games a month later.[67]
In 2007, Winklevoss was named to the United States Pan American Team and competed at the2007 Pan American Games inRio de Janeiro, Brazil.[68] He won asilver medal in the men'scoxless four event[69] and stroked the men'seight boat to agold medal on theLagoa Rodrigo de Freitas.[70]
In 2008, Winklevoss was named to the United States Olympic Team and competed at the2008 Olympic Games inBeijing, China.[71] He rowed with his brother in the men'scoxless pair event which took place at theShunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park. The brothers were coached by the renownedTed Nash.[8] In their first heat, they failed to finish in the top three and did not qualify for the Semifinals. In therepechage (a last chance to make the semifinals), they took first place, advancing them to the semifinals. A strong finish in semifinal 2 put them in the final competition. They ended up finishing sixth out of the fourteen countries which had qualified for the Olympics.[72]
In 2012, Tyler and his brother Cameron founded Winklevoss Capital Management, a firm that invests across multiple asset classes with an emphasis on providing seed funding and infrastructure to early-stage startups. The company is headquartered in New York'sFlatiron District.
In 2014, Tyler and his brother Cameron founded Gemini, a digital currency exchange and custodian that allows customers to buy, sell, and store digital assets. It is aNew Yorktrust company that is regulated by the SEC.
In January 2022, Gemini began sponsoringReal Bedford F.C., an English non-league football club owned by bitcoin podcaster Peter McCormack; in April 2024 the Winklevoss twins were announced as co-owners of the club following a major investment.[73]
Tyler and his brother Cameron are both played by actorArmie Hammer inThe Social Network (2010), a film directed byDavid Fincher about the founding ofFacebook. ActorJosh Pence was the body double for Tyler with Hammer's face superimposed.
The twins were depicted on the animated television showThe Simpsons in the eleventh episode of Season 23 in the episode called "The D'oh-cial Network" which aired on January 15, 2012. The Winklevoss twins are seen rowing in the 2012Olympic Games against Marge Simpson's sisters Patty and Selma. There is a reference made to the $65 million Facebook settlement.[74]
Tyler and Cameron are featured as the main protagonists in the 2019 bookBitcoin Billionaires: A True Story of Genius, Betrayal, and Redemption.[75]
The Winklevoss twins appeared inSilicon Valley in the first episode of the second season.[76]
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