Facebook

Social network founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, now rebranded parent company Meta. The canonical case study in network-effect compounding, ruthless mobile pivoting (2012), and acquisition-as-defense (Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus). For founders, Facebook's arc is the reference on how a dorm-room product becomes an infrastructure monopoly — and how being everywhere at once becomes its own kind of vulnerability.