ConnectU
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|
| Type of business | Private |
|---|---|
|
Type of site
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Social network service |
| Founded | December 2002 Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Headquarters | Harvard |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Founder(s) |
Cameron Winklevoss Tyler Winklevoss Divya Narendra |
| Products | ConnectU.com, i2hub.com, Jungalu.com, StallScribbles.com, Digital Flyers, ConnectHi (theyearbook.org), ConnectGroups, The Winklevoss Chang Group Representative Program, The Rep Center, Social Butterfly |
| Registration | Required |
| Launched | May 21, 2004 (as HarvardConnection) |
| Current status | Inactive |
ConnectU (originally HarvardConnection) was a social networking website launched on May 21, 2004, that was founded by Harvard students Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra in December 2002. Users could add people as friends, send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves. Users were placed in networks based upon the domain name associated with the email address they used for registration.
In December 2002, Harvard students and friends Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra wanted a better way to connect with fellow students at Harvard and other universities. As a result, the three conceived of a social network for Harvard students named HarvardConnection, which was to expand to other schools around the country. In January 2003, they enlisted the help of fellow Harvard student, programmer and friend Sanjay Mavinkurve to begin building HarvardConnection. Sanjay commenced work on HarvardConnection but left the project in the spring of 2003 when he graduated and went to work for Google.
After the departure of Sanjay Mavinkurve, the Winklevosses and Narendra approached Narendra’s friend, Harvard student and programmer Victor Gao to work on HarvardConnection. Gao, a senior in Mather House, had opted not to become a full partner in the venture, instead agreeing to be paid in a work for hire capacity on a rolling basis. He was paid $400 for his work on the website code during the second half of 2003, then excused himself thereafter due to personal obligations.
In November 2003, upon the referral of Victor Gao, the Winklevosses and Narendra approached Mark Zuckerberg about joining the HarvardConnection team. By this point, the previous HarvardConnection programmers had already made progress on a large amount of the 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". 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." Within days, Zuckerberg was talking to the HarvardConnection team and preparing to take over programming duties from Gao.
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