4 ms·

How I Sold My Company to Twitter, Went to Facebook, and Screwed My Co-Founders

49 points by taigeair 10y ago

RodericDay 10y ago
I read the book. He seems like an extremely unlikable guy, what with all his cheesy pick-up stories and his hatred of ad-blockers. However, all-in-all, it was a great read. I liked his take on Zuckerberg thinking of himself as Alexander -- "Google delenda est" -- or the vignette where the Facebook VP asked "What is Facebook?", and the perky-possibly-a-plant intern responded "it's not your social network, it's your personal newspaper!". It's worth trudging through the annoying self-promoting stuff for the insider takes imo.
- lazzlazzlazz 10y ago
  The "insider takes" are comical exaggerations and little else. The self-promoting isn't a "veneer" to look past - it's the substance.
  - RodericDay 10y ago
    > I work in an open office, and have been to Facebook's open office campus many times. I love working in an open office, and think Facebook's campus looks excellent. > Facebook Messenger has all of those advantages and even more, since your name is your identity and not something that requires exchange like a phone number. > These are shitty glasses that are already being billed as <$150. (On Snapchat) > Is there any evidence for this claim that a Tweet has more "cultural significance" than a Facebook post with objectively higher engagement? You seem like one of the "true believers" he talks about.
    - lazzlazzlazz 10y ago
      I work in the Bay Area and I have opinions on technology - a stunning indictment.
  - cookiecaper 10y ago
    People are often repulsed by those who are willing to tell them the frank truth, but these people are indeed among the most valuable input sources available in life. Self-promoters are worth studying because they understand and willfully exploit elements of the human decision-making apparatus that most people don't like to discuss, because it's not fun to admit how unsophisticated we truly are.
- lostlogin 10y ago
  His similes take it past my pain point. >Managing a combined deal between Facebook and Twitter was like trying to engineer simultaneous orgasm between a premature ejaculator and a frigid woman: nigh impossible, fraught with danger, and requiring a very steady hand.
  - RodericDay 10y ago
    The juvenile jokes are unbearable, but his reckless bridge-burning makes it just barely worthwhile to get through the whole thing. I wouldn't give him money for it, let's put it that way. If you find it used, though, it's worth a read.
  - hockeybias 10y ago
    I had to look up similies, but you are spot on. I have read 3/4 of it and I can't quite seem to finish it... I find the quality of the writing and his style of writing to both be all over the map.
Esau 10y ago
Isn't this a dupe? I seem to recall reading it.
- dan1234 10y ago
  It has been posted 8 times in the last 6 months https://hn.algolia.com/?query=How%20I%20Sold%20My%20Company%20to%20Twitter,%20Went%20to%20Facebook,%20and%20Screwed%20My%20Co-Founders&sort=byPopularity&prefix=false&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?query=How%20I%20Sold%20My%20Company%...
petermcbeater 10y ago
So the screw over was that the company fetched 5 million instead of 10? Assuming a 3-way split, 1.66 million versus 3.33 million each? He had to take a least a million dollar hit in that scenario, or did Facebook give him something else besides a job? Is a job at Facebook worth over a half a million dollars?
- dsacco 10y ago
  At level ~E5/E6 in New York or California, yes.
  - petermcbeater 10y ago
    I messed up my comment, supposed to read "over a million and a half" I could see ~500k MAYBE but 1.5million....
- zem 10y ago
  more to the point, is the difference between a job at facebook now, and taking a job at twitter for a few years before possibly joining facebook if he still wanted to, worth half a million dollars? it definitely wouldn't be to me, but then again he seemed to have a strong "facebook is the future; i need to be there" feeling that i have a hard time relating to.
- hota_mazi 10y ago
  You're forgetting the investors, who get the lion share. A $5M acquisition means pocket money for the founders.
- rf1331 10y ago
  In the book, it explains that the pre-ipo stock he was granted at FB was approximately equivalent to what he would have gotten from the Twitter acquisition.
B1FF_PSUVM 10y ago
"Products that cause mothers to murder their infants in order to use them more, assuming they’re legal, simply cannot fail in the world." All this is perfectly normal. Somehow.
- knowaveragejoe 10y ago
  A better assessment might be that it is normalized. We don't have to like it, but it is what it is.
dollaholla 10y ago
Why is a job at FB worth more than a ~$10M acquisition?
- serg_chernata 10y ago
  Talking completely out of my ass, we don't know what kind of package they were offering him. 10 mill isn't all for one person. Maybe he could make more over the coming years at FB than he would from a share of 10 mill after investors cash out. Or maybe he was genuinely more excited about working at FB.
  - petermcbeater 10y ago
    Do investors get no say when negotiating an acquisition?
    - brazzledazzle 10y ago
      Could they compell you to take a position at a company as a condition of the deal? Or maybe more importantly would they even bother? A single offhand comment about not wanting to work there could torpedo the deal.
- petermcbeater 10y ago
  Seriously, there were no specifics here about how much each founder got of the 5 million and how much each founder got out of the 10 million. Taking the simplest view of 1/3 split, he screwed himself (and his outher founders) out of 1.33 million $. Doesnt seem worth it Lot's of people are talking about investor's cashing out, if they had investors would this dude have been able to unilaterally force a worse deal so he could work at Facebook, seems unlikely

49 points by taigeair 10y ago

I read the book. He seems like an extremely unlikable guy, what with all his cheesy pick-up stories and his hatred of ad-blockers. However, all-in-all, it was a great read. I liked his take on Zuckerberg thinking of himself as Alexander -- "Google delenda est" -- or the vignette where the Facebook VP asked "What is Facebook?", and the perky-possibly-a-plant intern responded "it's not your social network, it's your personal newspaper!". It's worth trudging through the annoying self-promoting stuff for the insider takes imo.

lazzlazzlazz 10y ago
The "insider takes" are comical exaggerations and little else. The self-promoting isn't a "veneer" to look past - it's the substance.
- RodericDay 10y ago
  > I work in an open office, and have been to Facebook's open office campus many times. I love working in an open office, and think Facebook's campus looks excellent. > Facebook Messenger has all of those advantages and even more, since your name is your identity and not something that requires exchange like a phone number. > These are shitty glasses that are already being billed as <$150. (On Snapchat) > Is there any evidence for this claim that a Tweet has more "cultural significance" than a Facebook post with objectively higher engagement? You seem like one of the "true believers" he talks about.
  - lazzlazzlazz 10y ago
    I work in the Bay Area and I have opinions on technology - a stunning indictment.
- cookiecaper 10y ago
  People are often repulsed by those who are willing to tell them the frank truth, but these people are indeed among the most valuable input sources available in life. Self-promoters are worth studying because they understand and willfully exploit elements of the human decision-making apparatus that most people don't like to discuss, because it's not fun to admit how unsophisticated we truly are.
lostlogin 10y ago
His similes take it past my pain point. >Managing a combined deal between Facebook and Twitter was like trying to engineer simultaneous orgasm between a premature ejaculator and a frigid woman: nigh impossible, fraught with danger, and requiring a very steady hand.
- RodericDay 10y ago
  The juvenile jokes are unbearable, but his reckless bridge-burning makes it just barely worthwhile to get through the whole thing. I wouldn't give him money for it, let's put it that way. If you find it used, though, it's worth a read.
- hockeybias 10y ago
  I had to look up similies, but you are spot on. I have read 3/4 of it and I can't quite seem to finish it... I find the quality of the writing and his style of writing to both be all over the map.

Esau 10y ago

Isn't this a dupe? I seem to recall reading it.

dan1234 10y ago
It has been posted 8 times in the last 6 months https://hn.algolia.com/?query=How%20I%20Sold%20My%20Company%20to%20Twitter,%20Went%20to%20Facebook,%20and%20Screwed%20My%20Co-Founders&sort=byPopularity&prefix=false&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?query=How%20I%20Sold%20My%20Company%...

petermcbeater 10y ago

So the screw over was that the company fetched 5 million instead of 10? Assuming a 3-way split, 1.66 million versus 3.33 million each? He had to take a least a million dollar hit in that scenario, or did Facebook give him something else besides a job? Is a job at Facebook worth over a half a million dollars?

dsacco 10y ago
At level ~E5/E6 in New York or California, yes.
- petermcbeater 10y ago
  I messed up my comment, supposed to read "over a million and a half" I could see ~500k MAYBE but 1.5million....
zem 10y ago
more to the point, is the difference between a job at facebook now, and taking a job at twitter for a few years before possibly joining facebook if he still wanted to, worth half a million dollars? it definitely wouldn't be to me, but then again he seemed to have a strong "facebook is the future; i need to be there" feeling that i have a hard time relating to.
hota_mazi 10y ago
You're forgetting the investors, who get the lion share. A $5M acquisition means pocket money for the founders.
rf1331 10y ago
In the book, it explains that the pre-ipo stock he was granted at FB was approximately equivalent to what he would have gotten from the Twitter acquisition.

B1FF_PSUVM 10y ago

"Products that cause mothers to murder their infants in order to use them more, assuming they’re legal, simply cannot fail in the world." All this is perfectly normal. Somehow.

knowaveragejoe 10y ago
A better assessment might be that it is normalized. We don't have to like it, but it is what it is.

dollaholla 10y ago

Why is a job at FB worth more than a ~$10M acquisition?

serg_chernata 10y ago
Talking completely out of my ass, we don't know what kind of package they were offering him. 10 mill isn't all for one person. Maybe he could make more over the coming years at FB than he would from a share of 10 mill after investors cash out. Or maybe he was genuinely more excited about working at FB.
- petermcbeater 10y ago
  Do investors get no say when negotiating an acquisition?
  - brazzledazzle 10y ago
    Could they compell you to take a position at a company as a condition of the deal? Or maybe more importantly would they even bother? A single offhand comment about not wanting to work there could torpedo the deal.
petermcbeater 10y ago
Seriously, there were no specifics here about how much each founder got of the 5 million and how much each founder got out of the 10 million. Taking the simplest view of 1/3 split, he screwed himself (and his outher founders) out of 1.33 million $. Doesnt seem worth it Lot's of people are talking about investor's cashing out, if they had investors would this dude have been able to unilaterally force a worse deal so he could work at Facebook, seems unlikely