Chris Hughes – Co-founder

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 14:45:08 -0400

Then: Mark Zuckerberg recruited his Harvard roommate, Chris Hughes, to serve as Thefacebook's official spokesman. As Facebook grew, Mr. Hughes fielded an ever-growing number of interview requests, mostly from college papers around the country, and joined the company full time after he graduated in 2006. In early 2007, Mr. Hughes left Facebook and headed to Chicago to work on Barack Obama's digital campaign. "Working with Mark is very challenging," he told David Kirkpatrick, author of "The Facebook Effect."

Now: Since leaving Facebook and the Obama campaign, Mr. Hughes was named entrepreneur-in-residence at General Catalyst Partners. He founded Jumo, a social network for nonprofits and activists, and raised $3.5 million in grant funding from Omidyar Network, the Knight Foundation and the Goldhirsh Foundation, but it was ultimately not a success. As Betabeat wrote: "Waning traffic and disinterested users were making it obvious that the site was not going to catch on, despite multiple redesigns; a tough pill to swallow for the wunderkind whose second act after Facebook, online strategy at the Obama presidential campaign, was another huge success story." Jumo was acquired by GOOD in August 2011 (GOOD co-founder Ben Goldhirsh is a boarding school pal of Mr. Hughes's).

The golden-haired entrepreneur was appointed to the board of the Knight Foundation with the mandate to approach media like a venture capitalist. In December, Mr. Hughes agreed to fund a "stealthy news venture" from MoveOn Executive Director Eli Pariser. Last month, the Huffington Post reported that he was considering buying The New Republic, the lefty news magazine marred by falling circulation and dwindling profits.

(Photo: flickr.com/docsearls)

Betabeat » Chris Hughes – Co-founder

Chris Hughes – Co-founder