Birthday Alarm was a very simple site based on being reminded of your friends' birthdays.

I wanted to build something that was a system - that was mechanical and would propagate itself like a virus. I needed a way for it spread from person to person, and the best way to do that was trying to get someone to get their friends to sign up.

I built websites for myself. I didn't want to work for anyone else. I came from a science background, so I approached things fairly analytically.

If you are going truly viral, you don't need press. I mean, MySpace grew for a very long time without any press.

Myspace was always a bit edgy. People identified it with edginess and music.

When I was a kid, I really liked playing chess, which is pretty geeky; I just enjoyed it - thinking, exercising my mind. And I found computers to be like an eight-hour day chess game.

Birthday Alarm was a very simple site based on being reminded of your friends' birthdays.