Billy McFarland
Billy McFarland | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | William McFarland 1991 (age 32–33) |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Pingry School Bucknell University |
| Occupation(s) | Founder and CEO (Spling, Magnises, and Fyre Media App/Festival)[1] |
| Years active | 2005-present |
William Z. McFarland (born 1991)[2] is an American entrepreneur, as the founder and CEO of three companies: Spling, Magnises, and Fyre Media. McFarland organized the Fyre Festival to promote the Fyre music booking app.[1][3]
Early life and education
McFarland was born in New York City[4] and raised in the Short Hills section of Millburn, New Jersey.[5] At the age of 13, he founded his first company, an online outsourcing business that matched clients with designers.[2][5]
McFarland attended the Pingry School for high school.[6] He briefly attended Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania,[5][7] where he studied computer engineering.[8]
Career
McFarland dropped out of college toward the end of his freshman year and founded the online ad platform Spling, where, as of July 2015[update], he continued to be the CEO.[5][9]
In August 2013, McFarland founded Magnises,[10][11] aiming to create an exclusive "black card" with social perks such as club membership, targeted at status-oriented millennials in certain big cities.[2][12][13][14]
McFarland founded Fyre Media, and organized the luxury music festival called Fyre Festival to promote the Fyre music booking app.[1] The festival, to be held in April 2017, experienced a number of serious management, administration and misrepresentation issues and was canceled after guests had begun to arrive.[15] The festival subsequently became the focus of federal investigations and multiple lawsuits.[16] McFarland was arrested by federal agents on June 30, 2017, and charged with wire fraud in relation to Fyre and Fyre Festival.[17]
References
- ^ a b c Gabrielle Bluestone (April 29, 2017). "A National Punchline". Vice. Retrieved May 1, 2017.
- ^ a b c Alyson Penn, “New Black Card Comes With One Big Perk – A New York City Social Life,” Business Insider, June 11, 2014.
- ^ Madeline Stone (1970-01-01). "The organizer of the doomed Fyre festival was previously accused of scamming millennials with promises of Hamilton tickets and trips to Cuba". Businessinsider.nl. Retrieved 2017-04-28.
- ^ “You should know… Magnises,” Scene, May 2014.
- ^ a b c d Doree Lewak, “The college dropout behind NYC’s most exclusive credit card,” New York Post, July 5, 2014.
- ^ Staff. "The prep school-educated, college dropout 'entrepreneur' from a wealthy New Jersey suburb who faced barrage of complaints about his 'elite private club for millenials' BEFORE Fyre Festival disaster", The Daily Mail, April 29, 2017. Accessed May 1, 2017.
- ^ “Black card for millennials,” Fox Business, July 11, 2014.
- ^ Christopher Wink, “Spling founder Billy McFarland: our investors are in New York City,” Technical.ly / Philly, March 6, 2012.
- ^ Madeline Stone, "A 23-year-old created a club for elite millennials where everyone gets a black card and parties in a New York City penthouse," Business Insider, July 17, 2015.
- ^ Carson Griffith, “Musicians Embrace Magnises, a Black Card for the Younger Set,” Billboard, March 18, 2014.
- ^ Julie Earle-Levine, “Techie creates starter ‘black card’ for 20-somethings,” New York Post, April 20, 2014.
- ^ Jeremy Glass, “Magnises: The Only Other Black Card You Need to Know About,” Supercompressor, April 18, 2014.
- ^ “The Mastermind Behind NYC’s Newest Black Card,” Bloomberg TV, August 19, 2014.
- ^ “Millennials lacking financial literacy?” Fox Business, August 14, 2014.
- ^ Joe Coscarelli, "Fyre Festival, a Luxury Music Weekend, Crumbles in the Bahamas," New York Times, April 28, 2017.
- ^ Joe Coscarelli, Melena Ryzik and Ben Sisario (21 May 2017). "In Wreckage of the Fyre Festival, Fury, Lawsuits and an Inquiry". The New York Times. Retrieved May 22, 2017.
- ^ http://pagesix.com/2017/06/30/promoter-behind-disastrous-fyre-festival-arrested-for-wire-fraud/