Tom Anderson Net Worth

What is Tom Anderson's net worth?

Tom Anderson is an American entrepreneur who has a net worth of $60 million.

Tom Anderson earned his net worth as the co-founder of the social networking website Myspace and through successful real estate investments. He co-founded Myspace in 2003 with Chris DeWolfe and was later president of Myspace and a strategic adviser for the company. He became famous because his photo was the default friend for everyone who joined the social network.

As we detail later in this article, Tom and Chris only owned small fractions of MySpace when the company was acquired by NewsCorp in 2005. Prior to the 2005 acquisition, the company had restructured several times after various venture capital investment rounds. In total, between cashouts, acquisitions, and salary, Anderson and DeWolfe both grossed roughly $40 million from the Myspace venture.

Early Life

Tom Anderson was born on November 8, 1970, in Escondido, California. His father was an entrepreneur who, according to Anderson, always seemed to have another unusual business idea. As a teenager, Anderson became interested in computers and hacking. While attending San Pasqual High School, he used the online handle "Lord Flathead."

At age 14, Anderson hacked into Chase Manhattan Bank's computer system, prompting an FBI raid at his family's home. Agents confiscated his computer equipment, but Anderson was not arrested because of his age. Instead, he was placed on probation. The incident later became part of the mythology around "Tom from Myspace," giving the friendly default friend a surprisingly mischievous early backstory.

After high school, Anderson attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied English. He also spent time as the lead vocalist of a band called Swank. Later, he moved to Taiwan before returning to California to study film at UCLA.

Early Internet Career

Before Myspace, Anderson worked in the early internet industry during the dot-com boom. In 2000, he was employed as a copywriter and product tester at XDrive, a digital storage company. It was there that he met Chris DeWolfe, who would later become his Myspace co-founder.

XDrive went bankrupt in 2001, but Anderson and DeWolfe continued working together. They co-founded ResponseBase, a direct marketing company that helped connect businesses with online customers. In late 2002, they sold ResponseBase to eUniverse, an internet marketing company founded by entrepreneur Brad Greenspan. After the sale, Anderson and DeWolfe became eUniverse employees, setting the stage for the creation of Myspace.

Creating Myspace

The idea for Myspace emerged after the 2002 launch of Friendster, one of the first social networking sites to gain mainstream traction. Several eUniverse employees had Friendster accounts and quickly recognized the potential of social networking. Anderson, DeWolfe, and others formed a team to build a competing platform that copied some of Friendster's popular features while improving flexibility and user customization.

Anderson created the first Myspace pages in 2003. The platform soon gained traction, particularly among young users, musicians, nightlife promoters, and bands. Myspace allowed users to customize profiles, add friends, post photos, write blog entries, and connect with music artists in a way that felt more personal and expressive than earlier internet communities.

One of Myspace's most famous features was Anderson himself. His profile photo appeared as the default first friend for new users, making him one of the most widely seen faces on the internet. For many people, "Tom" was their first online friend.

Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Myspace Explosion

After eUniverse became Intermix Media, Myspace's growth accelerated dramatically. By the summer of 2005, the site had approximately 16 million monthly users. By January 2006, around 200,000 new users were signing up every day. Myspace became especially important in music, giving bands and independent artists a direct way to reach fans before streaming platforms and modern social media took over.

In June 2006, Myspace became the most popular social networking site in the United States. For a time, it was one of the most visited websites in the world and appeared to be the future of online social life. Its cultural reach was enormous, influencing everything from emo and indie music scenes to celebrity promotion, personal blogging, and online dating.

The dominance did not last forever. Facebook eventually overtook Myspace in 2008. Myspace declined rapidly afterward, hurt by design problems, advertising clutter, ownership changes, and competition from newer platforms. At its peak, the company employed around 1,600 people, but layoffs reduced that number significantly over the following years. In 2011, Myspace was sold to Specific Media for $35 million plus a 5% equity stake in Specific Media. Justin Timberlake also took a small stake in that deal.

News Corp Acquisition

By now, most people know that News Corp acquired Myspace for $580 million. Prior to the sale, Myspace had been restructured several times, resulting in a rather complicated equity shareholder pool. First off, the company had received $15.3 million in early funding from a company called VantagePoint. Then, in February 2005, Myspace took on another $15.5 million from a company called Redpoint. At the time of the Redpoint investment, 25% of the equity was set aside for six employees who were considered the founders of Myspace. This group included Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe, who each sold $3 million worth of their equity to Redpoint.

There was one catch to the Redpoint investment, though – If Redpoint were able to sell Myspace for greater than $125 million within one year, the founders' stake would be limited at that $125 million valuation. That meant when News Corp acquired Myspace for $580 million, the six founders received a combined $30 million.

According to the book "Stealing Myspace" by Wall Street Journal reporter Julia Angwin, DeWolfe and Anderson each took $10 million of that cut, leaving $10 million for the remaining four founders to split. DeWolfe and Anderson were then both given two-year $30 million contracts with News Corp. In the end, Redpoint made $44.5 million off its $15.5 million investment in less than a year. VantagePoint made $139 million off their $15.3 million investment. In total, between cashouts, acquisitions, and salary, Anderson and DeWolfe both grossed roughly $40 million from the Myspace venture.

(Photo by Mark Mainz/Getty Images)

Other Ventures

After Myspace, Anderson did not attempt to become a serial tech celebrity in the mold of many Silicon Valley founders. Instead, he largely stepped away from the corporate spotlight. He invested a portion of his Myspace fortune in distressed real estate, particularly in Las Vegas, and those investments reportedly became quite valuable.

He also invested in RocketFrog, a Facebook gambling app. In 2009, he made a cameo appearance in the Judd Apatow film "Funny People," which starred Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, and Leslie Mann. Over time, Anderson began describing himself as "happily retired," a phrase that fit his public image as one of the rare internet founders who cashed out and genuinely seemed content to move on.

Photography and Travel

In his post-Myspace life, Anderson became passionate about photography and travel. He has said that photographer Trey Ratcliff helped him develop his photography skills. Anderson has described his approach to photography as more artistic than strictly documentary, saying he is not necessarily trying to represent nature exactly, but to create something beautiful like a painter would.

He has traveled internationally to photograph landscapes in places such as Myanmar and Thailand and has shared his work on Instagram under the handle "myspacetom." His photography has become one of the main ways he remains publicly visible, replacing his earlier fame as the default friend on Myspace.

Real Estate

Anderson invested in real estate after the Myspace sale, including distressed properties that reportedly appreciated significantly. He has been especially associated with real estate investments in Las Vegas.

He primarily resides in Hawaii, where he owns a condo in Honolulu valued at approximately $4 million. His post-Myspace lifestyle appears to be built around travel, photography, and personal freedom rather than public entrepreneurship.

Personal Life

Tom is an active user of other social media platforms, such as Reddit, Facebook, and Instagram. He is interested in photography and has said that his friend, photographer Trey Ratcliff, helped him develop his photography skills. Anderson stated of his photography, "I'm not necessarily trying to represent nature exactly. I'm trying to make something beautiful like a painter would." He enjoys traveling internationally to take photographs of landscapes in places like Myanmar and Thailand, and in an interview with Influencive.com, he shared, "My passion for photography is what keeps me traveling. I have multiple homes in multiple cities, but I'm not satisfied just staying where I'm comfortable. I want to keep creating." Anderson posts his impressive photographs on his Instagram account ("myspacetom"), where he has amassed more than 630,000 followers.

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