Really?!!! Mark Zuckerberg Once Thought 50 Cent Worked For Him?

50 Cent, born Curtis Jackson, never finished high school but at one point was believed to have been the head of Business Development and Sales at Facebook back in 2005. How? Ironically, because of Facebook. When Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin was replaced a the head of Business Development and Sales by Kevin Colleran, Zuckerberg confused the Hopkins School graduate for mega super star 50 Cent due to Colleran’s profile picture of him meeting 5o Cent. The initial face-to-face encouter between Colleran and Zuckerberg was documented in David Kirkpatrick’s new book The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting The World  and reads like a Judd Apatow scene:

Zuckerberg arranged to meet Colleran in front of the Virgin Megastore on New York’s Union Square. Colleran showed up late and was walking toward Zuckerberg when he got a phone call from his new boss. ‘Where are you?’  Zuckerberg asked. ‘Zuck! I’m right in front of you!’ Colleran replied. Zuckerberg looked crestfallen. He thought Thefacebook’s ad salesman was the tough-looking Black guy in the profile photo.

President of Facebook and founder of Napster, Sean Parker informed Colleran that the meeting with Zuckerberg was weird because “we thought you were African-American.” At the time of their meeting, 50 Cent had already sold over 8 million records with his debut Get Rich Or Die Trying, had one of the most successful radio singles of all time with “In Da Club” and was signed to Dr. Dre and Eminem.]]>