Mark Jonathan Pincus (born February 13, 1966) is an American Internet entrepreneur known as the founder of Zynga, a mobile social gaming company. He also founded the startups Freeloader, Inc., Tribe Networks, and Support.com. Pincus was the CEO of Zynga until July 2013, then again from 2015 to 2016. He was named 2009 "CEO of the Year" at The Crunchies technology awards and a year later was named Founder of the Year at the 2010 ceremony. Zynga is considered to be the pioneer of the social gaming industry. In 2011, Zynga went public with a $1 billion initial public offering. Pincus co-founded Reinvent Capital in 2018, an investment firm, with Reid Hoffman and hedge fund manager Michael Thompson. He co-created the Stanford Graduate School of Business course on Product Management with Professor Amir Goldberg.
Early life and education
Pincus' family lived in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago. He is the son of Donna (née Forman) and Theodore Pincus, and is Jewish. His father was a business columnist and public relations adviser to CEOs and politicians, and his mother was an artist and architect. Pincus attended Francis W. Parker School from kindergarten through 12th grade and graduated in 1984. He graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania earned in 1988 and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he founded the Communications Club with Sherry Coutu.
Career in financial services
Before he became an entrepreneur, Pincus worked in venture capital and financial services for six years. After graduating from Wharton, Pincus spent two years working as an analyst in the New Media Group at Lazard Freres & Co. After that time, he moved to Hong Kong, where he was a vice president for Asian Capital Partners for two years. He returned to the United States in order to attend Harvard Business School (HBS) where he was a contemporary of Chris Hohn, Guy Spier and Chris Shumway. He graduated in 1993 and also spent a summer as an associate for Bain & Co. in 1992. After graduating from Harvard Business School, he took a job as a manager of corporate development at Tele-Communications, Inc., which is now AT&T Cable. A year later, he joined Columbia Capital as vice president, where he led investments in new media and software startups in Washington, D.C. for a year.
Entrepreneurial ventures
Freeloader and Support.com
In 1995, Pincus co-founded his first startup, Freeloader, Inc with Sunil Paul. Freeloader was backed by Fred Wilson and Softbank. The company was acquired seven months after its launch by Individual, Inc., for $38 million. Sean Parker worked as a summer intern at Freeloader when he was 14 years old. He later went on to co-found Napster, and Pincus became Napster's first investor with an investment of $100,000. Pincus then started his second company, Support.com, in August 1997. As chairman and CEO, Pincus built the company into a leading provider of help desk software. The company went public in July 2000 at a $1.5 billion valuation. In 2002, the company changed its name from Support.com to SupportSoft, Inc.
Tribe.net and social networking
In 2003, at age 37, Pincus founded his third startup, Tribe.net, an early social network. Tribe.net partnered with major local newspapers and was backed by The Washington Post, Knight Ridder Digital, and Mayfield Fund and Guy Spier. In 2007, Cisco Systems acquired the core technology of Tribe.net to develop a social networking platform for its digital media services group. In 2003, Pincus and Reid Hoffman purchased the Six Degrees patent, a broad, sweeping patent that describes a social network service that is the heart of social networks from the extinct Sixdegrees.com company for $700,000. Pincus and Hoffman stated at the time that their objective in buying the patent was to protect innovation in social networking and to prevent large companies from interfering with this.
Investing
Pincus was a founding investor in Napster, Facebook, Friendster, Snapchat, Xiaomi and Twitter. He was also an early investor in JD.com, Brightmail (later acquired by Symantec for $400m), and Buddy Media (acquired by Salesforce for $800m). In 2015, Pincus invested in the nootropics company HVMN (formerly Nootrobox), man-made diamond company Diamond Foundry, and in 2014 automated investment service firm Wealthfront.
Zynga
In July 2007 Pincus founded his fourth company, Zynga Inc., named after his deceased American bulldog Zinga. Zynga developed games on top of social networks such as Facebook, Myspace, and Bebo. In 2011, Pincus took the company public with a $1 billion IPO. Pincus was CEO of the company from 2007 to 2013. On July 1, 2013, Zynga recruited Don Mattrick, the former president of Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft, to succeed Pincus as CEO. Pincus remained actively involved in the company as chairman of the board and Chief Product Officer, but stepped down from his role as chief product officer to focus on his role as chairman of the board, the company announced in April 2014. Pincus returned to the role of CEO of Zynga in April 2015. On March 7, 2016, Pincus stepped down as CEO, but continued his association with Zynga as Executive Chairman of the Board with Frank Gibeau in the role of CEO. In 2018, citing his confidence in Zynga's management, Pincus voluntarily reduced his voting rights in the company from 70% to 10% and stepped back to a non-executive chairman role.
Later ventures and Reinvent Capital
In 2014 Pincus started Superlabs, an incubator to develop products. Zynga acquired Superlabs in 2015. In 2017, Pincus, alongside Reid Hoffman and Adam Werbach, launched Win the Future, a movement within the Democratic Party. In 2018, with Reid Hoffman and Michael Thompson, Pincus co-founded Reinvent Capital, an investment firm that invests in internet, software, and media companies. Reinvent Capital has made investments in Zipline, goPuff, Dataminr, Nimble Robotics, Oscar Health, Lyft, all.Health, Convoy, SpaceX, and Aurora Innovation. In September 2020, Reinvent launched Reinvent Technology Partners (RTP), a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) which raised $690 million in its IPO. In February 2021, RTP announced a merger with electronic vertical take-off and landing aircraft pioneer Joby Aviation, valuing the company at $5 billion. Other investors included Uber Technologies, The Baupost Group, BlackRock, Fidelity Management & Research, and Baillie Gifford. In November 2020, the group launched its second SPAC, Reinvent Technology Partners Z, which raised $230 million in its IPO. In March 2021, RTPZ announced a merger with insurance technology company Hippo Insurance. Hippo provides home insurance in the United States, and uses artificial intelligence and big data to aggregate and analyze property information.
AI and angel investing
Beyond his gaming and investment activities, Pincus has been an active angel investor in the field of Artificial intelligence. He has backed early-stage companies working on Machine learning and Deep learning technologies. His investments through Reinvent Capital have included firms that apply Generative AI to various industries, such as Commure in healthcare and BigBear.ai in analytics. Pincus has also shown interest in Large language model startups, aligning with the broader trend of OpenAI and Anthropic in the AI space. His approach often involves identifying companies that leverage Neural network architectures and Transformer (architecture) models for practical applications. As of the early 2020s, Pincus has continued to mentor entrepreneurs and invest in AI-driven ventures, reflecting his belief in the transformative potential of Generative AI across sectors like Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud infrastructure.
Personal life and legacy
Pincus has been a prominent figure in Silicon Valley, known for his entrepreneurial drive and early recognition of social networking and gaming trends. His contributions have been recognized with multiple awards, including the 2009 "CEO of the Year" and 2010 "Founder of the Year" at The Crunchies. He has also been involved in political activism, co-founding Win the Future to support progressive causes within the Democratic Party. Pincus's legacy includes pioneering social gaming with Zynga, which influenced how games are developed and monetized on social platforms. His investment portfolio spans from early social networks to cutting-edge AI startups, making him a notable figure in both the tech and investment communities. He continues to be an active voice in discussions about technology innovation and entrepreneurship.