36 Year Old Man Accused of Scamming $1.5 Billion

The crazy thing is, one million users is nothing to scoff at. With the right leadership and realistic investor expectations, such a platform could have had a healthy future. It might not have been the next Facebook, but it could have found its niche and provided long-term income for a small team of developers.

Correction: The "war-torn Cairo" statement was from a GQ magazine profile written on Shafi. It appears that there was no war in Egypt during the 80's. So either Shafi lied to GQ magazine to embellish the story of his upbringing or GQ magazine made up that fact. Either way it was a faulty source that made it into the video so apologies for that and I wanted to correct the record.

I see Cold Fusion, I click.

I think Zuck becoming a billionaire at such a young age has led others to think that all they need is a functional algorithm (preferably written on window glass) and they, too, can be wildly rich and powerful.

Everyone forgets that Facebook in 2004 had the same spammy start as Gather: taking the contacts of all new users and sending spamming emails about how so and so was using Facebook and wanted to add you to your friend list. Remember? Once you joined, it asked if you wanted Facebook to send invitation emails to your contact list, and regardless of whether you accepted or denied, it still took the info and sent the emails. For the longest time, someone told me FB had to be malware due to this practice.

"Eventually people are gonna find out" - That's not what I am getting from this stuff. I am getting the message that these companies don't do their due diligence and would be remarkably easy to fool with a slightly more intelligent scheme.

1. Create some social network, 2. Fill it with bots 3. Sell it to some Investors.... 4. I mean what can go wrong

No hyperbole, this is one of the best channels on YouTube.

I ran a startup and in year 1 we had a hefty amount of investors looking in. I spent close to a year trying to frame the company as something they'd want - but I never lied. Eventually, and ironically, I realized that if I stopped spending all that time trying to impress investors, rather, focus on growing the business, it might actually become something they'd want. I declined the year 1 investments, and in year 5, I was lucky enough to be acquired. Fake it never makes it.

There is an old saying when dealing with these types.... believe nothing of what they tell you and only half of what they show you. They are born liars.