I think it could have started in any tech friendly college. Like Stanford or Carnegie Mellon for example.

I don’t think it would have gotten this big if it was not for Zuckerberg. I was at Facebook, 2012-13, and had a few interactions with him. Since then I have worked at Dropbox and Confluent. Met CEOs of few other big companies of this era. None of them are in the same league as him. His clarity and dedication are unparalleled.

It’s hard to know if Harvard was special, but being limited to .edu emails played a huge role. Being limited to college students made people feel safe sharing, and the exclusivity made people really want to get in.

I remember working at the help desk in college and we’d have high school seniors calling up all the time to try and get their new college email address as soon as they got their acceptance letter. They wanted to join Facebook and be in the special club.