Palihapitiya was an early senior executive at Facebook , working at the company from to Palihapitiya was born on 3 September in Sri Lanka. Five years later, in , when the posting came to an end, the family sought asylum in Canada, as Palihapitiya's father had been criticized for his views about violence towards Tamils during the Sri Lankan Civil War. Palihapitiya's father struggled with alcoholism and was frequently unemployed, while his mother did low-paying housekeeping jobs.
Palihapitiya attended Lisgar Collegiate Institute. He then accepted a job offer at Winamp and moved to California.
Palihapitiya joined Winamp , which was subsequently acquired by AOL , where he became the company's youngest vice president, heading its instant messaging division in Palihapitiya's work at Facebook in his first year was messy, by his own account.
Palihapitiya next focused on new user growth; after four years, Facebook had 1 billion users. Steven Levy wrote in Facebook: The Inside Story that Palihapitiya was regarded as a "bully" at Facebook, [ 20 ] and that his subordinates often cried as a result of his bullying.
The firm changed its name to Social Capital in In , there was a massive decrease in Social Capital fund's operations and a significant exodus of top management and co-founders. In December , Palihapitiya stepped down as a member of the board of directors of Slack.
