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Why I got Fired from Facebook (a $100M dollar lesson) (2012)
- clamprecht 10y ago(From 2012)
- mildbow 10y agoHow many times is this guy going to rehash being fired from facebook as validation? His projected image repels me: the antithesis of a hacker - a smiley/slick bro-dude. Who ends up ruining your startup culture.
- tc313 10y agoNoah is a content marketer. He'll repackage the same content over and over until people stop clicking on it. I don't understand why people read these kinds of blogs, but apparently they're popular.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- Hydraulix989 10y agoIn other words, he didn't learn his lesson.
- billmalarky 10y ago>until people stop clicking on it. Heh, sounds like he has. His goal is to drive traffic and it appears to be working.
- unfunco 10y agoThe quote: > The BEST way to get famous is make amazing stuff. That’s it. Not blogging, networking, etc. That reads like making a product was never the goal, his goal is attention, I don't think I know one programmer that's programming because they want to be famous.
- lookACamel 10y agoWhat did you expect? It's an blog about marketing ... (Or "info-product" as they like to call it.)
- wlesieutre 10y agoIt's a post from four years ago, the author isn't the one bringing it up again
- mildbow 10y agoVery true. And based on that, I considered moderating my tone. But, harping on about facebook is what he does and he does represent the influx of marketing that's closer to car salesmen than hackers.
- hehheh 10y agoThis is a pretty old post, were there others?
- funkyy 10y agoThis is not groundbreaking to read, but it reminds me how some people are detached from reality. They think they are bulletproof, they bring so much value they can't be replaced. Usually this can be true only in very few situations like for top salesman operatives or for genius programmers. People that are as rare as it goes. Marketing, management, administration - those folks are usually replecable.
- privateersman 10y agoI think it's partly a side effect of modern education techniques (and TV), which conditions people to think that they are special. It's a gulf between educators and employers that results in a shock when reality sets in. Confidence is good, but thinking that the world revolves around you is bad... unless you are calling the shots.
- crispyambulance 10y agoEvery employee is "replaceable" at some point in time. I get the sense from his writing that Noah Kagan is a smart capable guy with a provocative demeanor that gets him into trouble from time to time. So he made a bad decision and as a result may have lost out on a big pile of money. But he seems to be doing fine and has accumulated more than a couple epic cocktail party stories. Thats a smashing success in my book.
- laurencei 10y agoHe says it cost him $100m. Is that because of the stock options he lost when he was fired? To have $100m in stock - he would have been a very early hire?
- MBCook 10y agoHe said he worked there when there were 30 people so he must have been a very early employee.
- eliben 10y agoThe article mentions he worked at a 30-person Facebook, so I guess that makes sense
- paul 10y agoFacebook is worth $350B, so $100M is only 0.03% equity. He likely had more than that, but the article is old so the number today could be more like $500M.
- tajen 10y agoIt's important to purchase your vested options as early as possible. So they can't take your options back. Of course it's easier if you are resident in a jurisdiction where you have to pay the Capital Gain Tax when you sell.
- cjdndjcn 10y agoHow was this posted three minutes ago with 6 comments and 11 points?
- shasheene 10y agoDo all large US tech companies have employment policies where a long-term employee (who got a raise and promotion a few weeks earlier) can be forced out without even any prior hint of a performance issue? I understand California is an 'at-will' state, but I'd think that the wealthy tech companies who compete to attract talent with free food and gyms would have slightly better management policies (at least for the long-term engineering staff) Though given this particular individual apparently was an extremely early Facebook employee (likely >100M of vested stock options), he doesn't need the job security to afford rental contract in San Francisco (first month rent + 2 month security deposit, which can be a hefty sum in SF)
- brianwawok 10y agoMost companies can fire you for any reason and do. Many take more times to dot their Is, but not all do. This is when FB was growing very fast so I doubt they had time. OTOH I bet being fired at Microsoft takes longer.
- sawthat 10y agoAt-will means at-will. That said, larger companies generally have policies that require documentation and a "personal improvement plan" (PIP) before termination for cause. This is mostly to provide documentation in the event of a wrongful termination suit. However, generally if an employee is considered a serious liability (they have hurt or threatened another employee) they can be fired immediately. Startups tend to be a little more aggressive on termination because they can't afford to pay a salary to someone for months hoping they improve.
- asuffield 10y ago> This is mostly to provide documentation in the event of a wrongful termination suit. While it might serve that purpose, it's primarily to make sure that middle-management takes reasonable steps to let people correct and thinks the decision through before acting. Nobody wants to work in a place where people get surprisingly or randomly fired, or where a manager is firing all the people they don't like. Having processes (mostly) prevents that sort of thing from happening.
- troutaway123 10y ago> Error establishing a database connection The real reason
- kyle6884 10y agoheh, google cached version: http://goo.gl/hRUKyu http://goo.gl/hRUKyu
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- ajamesm 10y agoClassifying employees as "growers" or "showers"? The author's a dick, either way.
- devy 10y agoHere is the free Kindle version on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/How-Lost-170-Million-Dollars/dp/161961300X/?tag=ninjacard-20 http://www.amazon.com/How-Lost-170-Million-Dollars/dp/161961... Note: interestingly, Noah said the lost was $170MM (in the book name) not $100MM as titled on the blog.
- AKifer 10y ago"At that time, here’s the order of what was important in my life: 1- Facebook 2- Myself ..." Reminds me of the Gervais principle, this guy seems to be a clueless at that time, a true believer in the firm. Glad for him he started his own venture. http://www.ribbonfarm.com/the-gervais-principle/ http://www.ribbonfarm.com/the-gervais-principle/ (very long read)
- sjg007 10y agoNow these are an amazing set of essays. I was wondering why so many people are ineffective at work despite doing productive work.
- simbalion 10y agoThose aren't the real reasons he got fired. He got fired because the workplace is a theater and a fraud. Some folks might disagree with me, but it is 2016, the U.S. elections are rigged and it's time that we all recognize that we're being lied to wholesale. Working for other people is always a scam. That's why he got fired from Facebook.
- tptacek 10y agoBuried in the middle of the post: 2- Marketing. The marketing team’s plan was not to do anything and the night before we opened Facebook to the professional market (anyone with a @microsoft.com, @dell.com, etc…) I emailed TechCrunch to let Michael Arrington know to publish it in the morning. He ended up publishing it that night (I was at Coachella and will never again attend) before the actual product was released in the morning. I immediately notified the e-team and assumed full responsibility. Lesson learned: I don’t think what I did was that wrong since the marketing team did not do anything to promote our new features. My lesson learned was more I should have involved them instead of just going around them. (Learn How to Hire a Great Marketing Person.) He leaked a major Facebook update to TechCrunch? I'm surprised he wasn't fired on the spot.
- jsprogrammer 10y agoWe'd need to see the contract. Talking about your work isn't against the rules everywhere.
- tptacek 10y agoWe probably don't. You can be let go for almost any reason, and this sure seems like one of those.
- jsprogrammer 10y agoBeing let go at the whims of your executive is different than leaking information against your contract. If the contract has no rules against speaking, then the action wasn't a leak, but rather a standard communication.
- rootlocus 10y agoThe marketing team’s plan was not to do anything and the night before we opened Facebook Seems like he went behind their backs with something as major as press release when he wasn't even part of the marketing department. There may not be a specific clause in his contract, but this definitely made him a liability as he recalls being called by the person letting him go. Lesson learned: I don’t think what I did was that wrong I don't think he learned this lesson.
- kzhahou 10y agoThe good news is that most non-founder startup employees never risk losing out on this much money.
- mmmBacon 10y agoMy guess is that he's not fully coming clean with the real reason he was fired. If he was a leader worth promoting 2months earlier and wasn't making product planning spreadsheets then they'd have told him and/or hired someone to help him. That story doesn't jive with being told he was a liability. Given that he leaked info previously without talking to the team, I suspect that he was fired because he did something of that magnitude again and they decided he could not be trusted and he was out.
- gkop 10y agoYes, there seems to be something missing. Noah readily accepts (in hindsight) that it was his fault he got fired, but neglects to say what if any steps his manager took to guide Noah to be a better employee. If this were the whole story, his manager would bear some responsibility for things getting so bad.
- havetocharge 10y agoI don't understand where the 100m figure popped out of.
- kenferry 10y ago"The product is strong with this one. Now learn some grammer. -Mark" I hope the return gift was the Oxford English Dictionary.
- ilostmykeys 10y agoGrow up. Get a life. A job is like a shoe. If it falls apart or gets worn out... well, get another, and move on (or "run", if it's a new pair of sneakers)
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- CurtMonash 10y agoI've only worked for one company that I didn't run. They fired me. They paid me a six figure discretionary bonus anyway (in 1986 dollars). When I argued that this was too low, they said "Well, we did fire you." I basically was fired for not trying to fit in. This was a Wall Street job, specifically as a stock analyst, in which you didn't work much with colleagues. Still, I didn't look or act the part of a well-dressed Wall Streeter. Perhaps I should have changed my ways after an Institutional Investor Magazine article, written because I was the youngest #1-ranked stock analyst ever, attacked me for my clothing and personality. :)
- shostack 10y agoTotal random aside, but as someone who reached a level of prominence in that space, what are your views on the investing strategy espoused by A Random Walk Down Wallstreet, Bogleheads, etc.?
- CurtMonash 10y agoWhen I was an analyst, I put together a portfolio of 5 stocks for my parents. The value doubled in 18 months, even though 2 of the 5 went bankrupt. After I was an analyst, however, I insisted there was nothing I could do for them that was better than index funds. They ultimately felt neglected, and went to a money manager, who of course charged them a lot for underperforming the market.
- gerby 10y agoI didn't know California was an at-will state. I thought it was fairly liberal there. At-will clauses tend to be written by right-wingers.
- mercer 10y agoI'm hesitant to submit this comment, but something really rubs me the wrong way about this post. It most reminds me of the 'uncanny valley' feeling. Or Patrick Bateman, but that would be too hyperbolic a comparison. Maybe it's the advertisement for his book at the end of the article. Maybe it's the repeated 'what happened to me was justified and I thank those who make the decisions' groveling-like contriteness, even though objectively that should be a good thing. Maybe it's the informal-but-not-like-idlewords/pinboard tone of voice. Or maybe it's just the connection with AppSumo and the general dislike I have of people who do marketing as their primary talent. I feel like I'm being unfair and I deserve to be downvoted because I cannot properly articulate what bothers me so much about this, but at the same time it's so... unsettling that I can't keep myself from doing so. Maybe if I talked to the guy I'd feel different. Maybe I'm just unfairly biased against marketing as a profession. It's very confusing and my apologies for anyone who read this whole comment.