The Zuckerberg roommate who said no to Facebook and missed out on $400million

Joe Green chose to stay in school instead of starting the social media giant



Now runs Causes, a charitable giving site that is one of Facebook's largest applications

Mr Green will profit from the IPO launch because he has Facebook shares



Facebook is due to become a publicly traded company on Wednesday when it will launch with an expected $100billion valuation, but one man in Mark Zuckerberg's social network won't be celebrating to the same extent.



Joe Green is the former college roommate of Mr Zuckerberg who, unlike his famous friend, decided to stay enrolled in Harvard instead of dropping out to make Facebook.



That decision is called his $400million mistake.



Even in spite of the mistake, Mr Green now runs a charitable giving site called Causes and through that as well as the shares of Facebook which he owns, he will still likely make a multi-million dollar profit from the company's expected launch.

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Mr Green (left) decided to stay in school and not become one of the founders of Facebook with Mr Zuckerberg (right)

'My father, who's a professor, was not too happy with the prospect of me getting kicked out of school,' Mr Green told Good Morning America.

Instead of going on to launch the world's biggest social network, Mr Green graduated and went to work for John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign, and is now running an online charitable giving service that is one of Facebook's largest applications.



Though he wasn't one of the original founders of Facebook in full, Mr Green was a part of the company's original iteration and helped Mr Zuckerberg create the website's predecessor. The college boys first made a site called 'FaceMash' which allowed visitors to judge the looks of people online.

After getting in some trouble with Harvard over the project- which involved them hacking into the university's online picture library of students- Mr Green was hesitant to get involved with another internet start-up at the risk of threatening his college education.



'We'd gotten into a little bit of trouble with the previous project,' Mr Green said.



College days: Mr Zuckerberg (far left) and Mr Green (far right) are now back working together, though in an extended way as Mr Green runs one of Facebook's largest applications. The two friends in the center are unidentified.

Friends in the background: The 2010 film The Social Network chronicled the creation of Facebook, and did not have a character that was meant to be Mr Green but rather he was likely one of the unnamed friends seen in the background

Earning the degree: Mr Green decided to stay at Harvard and graduate instead of quitting early to help Mr Zuckerberg launch Facebook in 2004

Public service and political organizing were two of Mr Green's passions since a young age, and he was active in the local government of Santa Monica, California, where he grew up.



After college, he worked in the field, getting out the vote for Democrat John Kerry's doomed presidential campaign, but that did not leave him disheartened.



'That experience made me believe in democracy,' he told The Los Angeles Times.

Even though he didn't move out to California with Mr Zuckerberg and crew immediately, he did make the jump to San Francisco when he created a site called Essembly in 2005.

Politically active: Mr Green posted photos of him with both President Obama (who was campaigning at the time) and former President George HW Bush and former first lady Barbara Bush (right)

Done well: Mr Green has quite the view out of his Berkeley, California home overlooking the San Francisco Bay

Splashing out: Mr Green bought a Volvo C70 hardtop convertible just months before launching Causes

He then partnered up with Mr Zuckerberg's friend Sean Parker, the man known for creating the music sharing site Napster (and telling Mr Zuckerberg to 'drop the The' which used to be at the beginning of the social network site's name).



The duo set up so-called shop in a popular Hollywood coffeeshop (where celebrity blogger Perez Hilton worked at the time) and started creating the charitable giving site now called Causes.



In 2007 he partnered up with Sean Parker, the man known for creating the music sharing site Napster (and telling Mr Zuckerberg to 'drop the The' which used to be at the beginning of the social network site's name), to create his new project called Causes.



Causes helps introduce people to different charitable effort or political issues and does so using Facebook.



Thriving on his own: Joe Green now runs a charitable giving site, which is one of Facebook's top apps

While his tech friends were clearly helpful in the beginning, Mr Green has made a name for himself and was recently deemed one of Forbes Magazines' Top 30 Under 30.



Causes is one of Facebook's biggest applications and has 170 million users who have raised over $50million for their efforts.



Facebook's expected $100billion valuation when their Initial Public Offering is launched, Mr Zuckerberg will likely be adding many billions to his current net worth of $17.5billion.

While Mr Green may not have the same exorbitant pay day as his former roommate, he will be fine: he was sure to get a hefty amount of Facebook stock.

BIG PAY DAY FOR THE BOYS WHO DIDN'T DEFRIEND FACEBOOK

Facebook's launch as a publicly traded company is expected to happen on Wednesday after months of speculation.

In what would be the most hotly anticipated consumer technology offering for more than a decade, Facebook could start the process for an initial public offering of stock as early as Wednesday.

The social networking site - which is expected to hit one billion users this year - would join McDonald's, Amazon.com, Visa and Bank of America Corp in the top ranks of the largest public companies in the world.

The sale could raise as much as $10 billion (£6.4 billion) in an offering that would value the company at $75 billion to $100 billion (£48 billion to £64 billion), according to the Wall Street Journal.

The windfall would dwarf the $1.67 billion (£1 billion) raised in Google's 2004 float. That offering gave Google a market value of $23 billion (£15 billion) - but the company is now worth $184 billion (£117 billion).

The sale could be a boon for Facebook's employees too - Mr Zuckerberg suggested in an interview last year that if his company went public it would be possible to reward staff with 'equity and options'. Up to one third of Facebook's 3,000 staff could become millionaires.







Mark Zuckerberg:

Age: 27

Net worth: $17.5billion

Owns 24 per cent of Facebook, previously worth $5.3billion

ROLE: Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Facebook

Currently creating his own monetary system 'Facebook Credits' to facilitate transactions and profits, according to Forbes.



Dustin Moskovitz:

Age: 27

Net worth: $3.5billion

Holds a 6 per cent stake in Facebook previously worth $1.3billion

ROLE: A co-founder and the social-networking site's first chief technology officer, Moskovitz left in 2008 and started Asana, a software company that allows individuals and small companies to better collaborate.



Eduardo Saverin:

Age: 29

Net worth: $2billion

Most recently held a 5 per cent stake in Facebook, previously worth $1.1billion, which he has since sold more than half of to invest in new start-ups .

ROLE: Co-founder of Facebook



Chris Hughes:

Age: 28

Net worth: estimated at $700million

ROLE: Co-founder & original Facebook spokesperson.

Most recently served as Barack Obama's Director of online Organizing for his 2008 presidential campaign. Currently the executive director of a new social network called Jumo which connects individuals to global nonprofits.



Sean Parker:

Age: 31

Net worth: $2.1billion

Owns 4 per cent of Facebook, worth over $880million

ROLE: Former Facebook president, helped capture initial investors for the company



Winklevoss twins:

Age: 30

Net worth: They accepted a $20million cash settlement and Facebook stock that could now be worth more than $150million, according to AdWeek .

ROLE: Claimed they invented Facebook which was stolen by Mr Zuckerberg Box by Daily Mail Reporters



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