Facebook
Hughes is a co-founder of Facebook.[7][9][10] At Harvard, Hughes met and was recruited by Mark Zuckerberg, who was still working in the early stages of the website. During their summer break in 2004, Hughes and Zuckerberg traveled to Palo Alto, California. While Zuckerberg decided to remain in Palo Alto after the break, Hughes returned to Harvard to continue his studies.[4] In 2006, after graduating from Harvard, Hughes relocated to Palo Alto to rejoin Zuckerberg and became involved in Facebook again.
Hughes was unofficially responsible for beta testing and product suggestions. When the group had the idea to open Facebook to other schools, Hughes argued that schools should have their networks to maintain intimacy. He was also a key driver in developing many of Facebook's popular features, which led to the opening of Facebook to the outside world.[4]
Hughes left Facebook in 2007.[7][11]
When Facebook's initial public offering took place in 2012, Hughes made $500 million.[12]
After Facebook
In March 2009, Hughes was named Entrepreneur in Residence at General Catalyst, a Cambridge, Massachusetts, venture-capital firm.[13]
Hughes was the executive director of Jumo, a non-profit social network organization he founded in 2010, which "aims to help people find ways to help the world".[14][15] In July 2010, UNAIDS (Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS) appointed him to a 17-member "High Level Commission" of renowned politicians, business leaders, human rights activists, and scientists tasked with spearheading a "social and political action campaign over the coming year aimed at galvanizing support for effective HIV prevention programmes."[16]
The New Republic
In March 2012, Hughes purchased a majority stake in The New Republic magazine. He became the publisher and executive chairman and also served as editor-in-chief of the magazine.[17] In December 2014, shortly after the magazine's centennial celebration, editor Franklin Foer and literary editor Leon Wieseltier were "driven out," and dozens of other staff and contributing editors resigned after a new chief executive, Guy Vidra, a former Yahoo! employee, described the new direction of the magazine as a "vertically integrated digital media company."[18] The magazine was forced to cancel its upcoming issue due to the staff departures.[18]
The magazine was not profitable during Hughes' tenure.[19] On January 11, 2016, Hughes put The New Republic up for sale, saying he had "underestimated the difficulty of transitioning an old and traditional institution into a digital media company in today's quickly evolving climate."[19]
Other activities
Hughes co-founded the Economic Security Project in 2016.[7] In 2018, he published Fair Shot: Rethinking Inequality and How We Earn.[22] In 2025, he published Marketcrafters: The 100-Year Struggle to Shape the American Economy.[2][23]
In May 2019, he published an op-ed in the New York Times, calling for the break-up of Facebook and government regulation of content on it;[24] in June of the same year, he criticized the Facebook decision to launch Libra (which was later renamed Diem), saying that the cryptocurrency "would shift power into the wrong hands if, at least, the coin be modestly successful".[25]
