This document summarizes the early history and growth of Facebook. It describes how Mark Zuckerberg and his Harvard college roommates and friends founded Facebook in their dorm room in 2004. As Facebook grew beyond Harvard to other colleges and schools, they learned from the mistakes of other social networks like Friendster to scale their infrastructure efficiently. They were reluctant to take investments from venture capitalists that may have changed their vision. By sticking to their original vision and platform-based approach, Facebook was able to grow rapidly and become the largest social network in the world.