4 ms·

A lot of people don't think much of him, and I completely disagree with his ultimate stated vision, but it's one hell of an accomplishment to take a company fro

A lot of people don't think much of him, and I completely disagree with his ultimate stated vision, but it's one hell of an accomplishment to take a company from $0-531 Billion in your 20's and early 30's, do it while retaining talent and growing and have people as committed now as they were 10 years ago. Doing that requires a very special person.

typomatic 8y ago
I agree that the things you said happened, but I believe that the success of the company is incidental to who ran it. There are millions and millions of factors involved in Facebook's success and to drop all the accolades at the feet of the CEO seems insane.
- rm999 8y ago
  > I believe that the success of the company is incidental to who ran it This is usually not true for successful companies, but it's especially not true in facebook's case. Mark Zuckerberg has kept incredibly strong control of facebook, holding more than 50% of voting control even as it's grown to a half trillion dollar company - so he definitely deserves credit for what his company has become. Also, he has made some strong, unintuitive decisions along the way (no advertising in the first several years, real name policy, dropping out of college, moving to silicon valley, hiring experienced tech executives, buying a dead-simple photo filter app for 1 billion dollars) that can directly be attributed to facebook's success today. It's hard to remember today, but in the first ~5 years of Facebook it was very far from obvious that facebook would dominate the social space.
  - enitihas 8y ago
    I think his biggest decision might have been to go mobile first. I used to have a Nokia S40 series phone and Facebook worked really well on that both from the default web browser and from Opera Mini. Add that to the Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions and he seems to be making really good business decisions. I do disagree with the overall fb direction today but I don't doubt he is a very capable business man.
  - gowld 8y ago
    Which of those decisions is unintuitive? They are the same choices most big companies of the past 30years have made. > no advertising in the first several years, Standard VC funded startup > real name policy This may be the one non-obvious choice. > dropping out of college Like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs > moving to silicon valley ahem, document.location == "ycombinator.com" > hiring experienced tech executives How is hiring experienced tech executives unintuitive for a tech company? Google hired Eric Schmidt. Microsoft hired Steve Ballmer. > buying a dead-simple photo filter app for 1 billion dollars Paying a fortune for apps with eyeballs was the m.o. of the first dotcom era, and hasn't subsided.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
- reaperducer 8y ago
  > to drop all the accolades at the feet of the CEO seems insane. Seems fair. The public drops all of Facebook's failures at Zuckerburg's feet, too. Nobody ever said, "Damn that third-tier middle manager in the reporting department who ordered the database change that made me unable to find my cousin's best friend's uncle's dog's page!"
- gowld 8y ago
  Why did Facebook beat MySpace and Friendster? Why does Facebook even exist? Zuckerberg fought off several cofounders. Do you think Facebook would be what is it if the Winklevoss brothers ran it?
johnchristopher 8y ago
So do I. I am most impressed with the fact he kept the train on rails than coming up with the idea.

typomatic 8y ago

I agree that the things you said happened, but I believe that the success of the company is incidental to who ran it. There are millions and millions of factors involved in Facebook's success and to drop all the accolades at the feet of the CEO seems insane.

rm999 8y ago
> I believe that the success of the company is incidental to who ran it This is usually not true for successful companies, but it's especially not true in facebook's case. Mark Zuckerberg has kept incredibly strong control of facebook, holding more than 50% of voting control even as it's grown to a half trillion dollar company - so he definitely deserves credit for what his company has become. Also, he has made some strong, unintuitive decisions along the way (no advertising in the first several years, real name policy, dropping out of college, moving to silicon valley, hiring experienced tech executives, buying a dead-simple photo filter app for 1 billion dollars) that can directly be attributed to facebook's success today. It's hard to remember today, but in the first ~5 years of Facebook it was very far from obvious that facebook would dominate the social space.
- enitihas 8y ago
  I think his biggest decision might have been to go mobile first. I used to have a Nokia S40 series phone and Facebook worked really well on that both from the default web browser and from Opera Mini. Add that to the Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions and he seems to be making really good business decisions. I do disagree with the overall fb direction today but I don't doubt he is a very capable business man.
- gowld 8y ago
  Which of those decisions is unintuitive? They are the same choices most big companies of the past 30years have made. > no advertising in the first several years, Standard VC funded startup > real name policy This may be the one non-obvious choice. > dropping out of college Like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs > moving to silicon valley ahem, document.location == "ycombinator.com" > hiring experienced tech executives How is hiring experienced tech executives unintuitive for a tech company? Google hired Eric Schmidt. Microsoft hired Steve Ballmer. > buying a dead-simple photo filter app for 1 billion dollars Paying a fortune for apps with eyeballs was the m.o. of the first dotcom era, and hasn't subsided.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
reaperducer 8y ago
> to drop all the accolades at the feet of the CEO seems insane. Seems fair. The public drops all of Facebook's failures at Zuckerburg's feet, too. Nobody ever said, "Damn that third-tier middle manager in the reporting department who ordered the database change that made me unable to find my cousin's best friend's uncle's dog's page!"
gowld 8y ago
Why did Facebook beat MySpace and Friendster? Why does Facebook even exist? Zuckerberg fought off several cofounders. Do you think Facebook would be what is it if the Winklevoss brothers ran it?

johnchristopher 8y ago

So do I. I am most impressed with the fact he kept the train on rails than coming up with the idea.