It’s a little bit ironic that Northwestern graduate student Divya Narendra has a Facebook.
That’s because the 28-year-old Harvard grad is co-founder of ConnectU, the social networking website that is said to be Facebook’s predecessor and prototype. He’s also involved in a lawsuit against Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg that has yet to be settled.
Narendra, who is a second-year JD-MBA candidate, has since founded his own company, SumZero, an online community of buyside analysts and hedge and mutual funds. Narendra said he wanted to get a business degree mainly to get the entrepreneurial education and connections necessary to run SumZero, but also realized the value of having a law degree through his involvement in the ConnectU-Facebook lawsuit.
“One of the big lessons and realizations from having been through 6 years of litigation is the important role the law plays in informing business decisions,” he said.
Narendra is portrayed by Max Minghella in “The Social Network,” the movie that follows Facebook’s founding and the subsequent lawsuits filed against Zuckerberg. He says the film “is more fact than fiction.” Released October 1, the movie opened at the number one spot in the box office that week and has made more than $85 million so far.
Although the experience with ConnectU and Facebook has been stressful, Narendra has managed to stay positive, said Cameron Winklevoss, co-founder of ConnectU and friend of Narendra.
“He hasn’t let the negative aspect of the experience affect him at all,” he said. “Ultimately, at the core, Divya’s the same person that we met ten years ago.”
Narendra said several people on and off campus have approached him to ask if he is indeed “the Facebook guy.” Several people have also expressed in his company, including a law professor that has helped Narendra strengthen SumZero’s legal counsel.
The company, which has been featured on CNBC’s Fast Money, Fox Business and The Wall Street Journal, is Narendra’s biggest priority, said second-year JD-MBA candidate Adina Lord.
“He’s committed to making it succeed,” she said. “It’s always been a priority for him, just as much as him being here to study.”
That he is a CEO of a growing business makes Narendra the ideal business student, said Jeremy Wilson, second-year JD-MBA candidate. While other students are concerned with grades and assignments, Narendra is concerned with improving his company, he said.
“His approach to class isn’t to copy everything down but to learn,” he said. “It’s different than folks worried about their GPA and recruiting. He doesn’t worry about the system.”
Wilson said the dual-degree program is difficult for any student, but in addition to schoolwork, Narendra also constantly travels and meets with business contacts. His experience is more stressful but ultimately more beneficial because of its real-world application, Wilson said.
“It’s a Herculean task to be in business school and run your own company,” he said.
But Narendra, who is taking primarily business classes while running SumZero, said his experience at Northwestern has been a good one so far.
“I’ve been really impressed with the intelligence and friendliness of the students, and the professors have been very accessible,” he said.
Narendra studied Applied Mathematics at Harvard and worked as a hedge fund analyst after graduating in 2004 before founding SumZero. But aside from his academic intelligence – Narendra was a National Merit Scholar and scored a 1590 out of 1600 on his SAT – Narendra is also a person with strong values, Winklevoss said.
“He’s a highly ethical person,” he said. “There’s lots of intelligent people out there, but ethics are an important thing in our day and age.”
That’s why Winklevoss said he’d rather have Narendra on his side than any Facebook-founding millionaire.
“Divya is more clever than Mark Zuckerberg and has morals to boot,” he said.
