Entrepreneur Sean Parker has hit back at a journalist who questioned his record in business, by claiming that Mark Zuckerberg was not "any more a founder" of Facebook than himself.
Parker said that neither he, Zuckerberg (the current CEO) or his Harvard classmates Eduardo Saverin and Dustin Moskovitz could take more credit for the website's foundation - and that talking about 'credit' missed the point.
He said on Twitter: "Zuckerberg created "Thefacebook" but he was not technically/legally/conceptually any more a founder than me/Dustin/Eduardo."
He also said:
"Being entrepreneurial is not about titles, credit, or glory. It's about doing what it takes when nobody else believed in you."
Parker, who joined Facebook after five months and is credited by Zuckerberg for leading its transformation into a viable business, was responding to an article by John McDermott, written for the website Inc and published in July.
In that piece, McDermott said that Parker's "track record" was "spottier" than he had claimed, and that Parker had not been as successful as the entrepreneurs he wished to emulate - such as Steve Jobs.
The Inc piece was itself based on a New York Times interview, in which Parker said:
"Most entrepreneurs don't remain entrepreneurs. It's just too psychologically draining to have to constantly start over."
McDermott responded by writing that "Parker's entrepreneurial activity has leveled off a bit" after his success with Napster and Plaxo, an online address book now owned by Comcast.
McDermott wrote: "He became the inaugural president at Facebook--yet although he is frequently cited as an integral part of the company's early success, it wasn't his endeavor."
But Parker took to Twitter on Thursday to set the record straight, arguing that "it's not about "founding" a company it's about being an entrepreneur".
Parker went on to argue that he did not become an entrepreneur for credit's sake:
McDermott - who may be surprised to see the tweets appear in his timeline almost a month after he published his article - has not yet responded to Parker's messages.
Parker recently launched his latest venture - a video-calling app called Airtime - with his Napster co-founder Shaun Fanning.