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This may be an unpopular opinion but here it is: Zuckerburg started this as a hobby with it being something he may never have thought of becoming full-scale. Fa

This may be an unpopular opinion but here it is: Zuckerburg started this as a hobby with it being something he may never have thought of becoming full-scale. Fast forward to today and Zuckerburg is in over his head. He has control over this !massive! amount of data that companies are chomping at the bit for. He’s trying to make sure his company survives and his product does no harm. But, he’s losing control. They’re trying to wiggle out of these wormholes they’ve sunk in and all of their fabrications are coming to light.

askafriend 8y ago
Your comment is quite far off from reality. To address your first point: he started the company deliberately. He had sold a successful company before Facebook. He also turned down multi-billion dollar acquisition offers because he knew exactly what he was doing and what the opportunity was. Many of the funding rounds for FB were red hot and everyone was trying to get in. And to your second point: what he built is unprecedented. And because it is unprecedented, there are a lot of questions that we as a society need to answer collectively about the role a product like Facebook plays in our lives (kinda just like with every other new, transformational technology, including email). But to call his execution "In over his head" is laughable. I don't think other leaders would have fared any better and many could have fared much, much worse. Now, are there questions and valid criticisms about his execution today or his handling of the recent controversies? Of course! Does that mean he's a random guy with a side-project that accidentally blew up and suddenly he's in over his head? Absolutely not, your comment is more fantasy than reality.
- starik36 8y ago
  What business did he sell before Facebook?
  - nostrademons 8y ago
    Probably referring to the Synapse Media Player, which had a million-dollar buyout offer from Microsoft while Zuckerburg was in high school. IIRC he didn't actually sell it though; it was still a going project under Zuckerburg's control when he created FB, and just kinda died out because FB held more potential.
    - askafriend 8y ago
      This is exactly it, I misremembered a bit of the history. I forgot that he didn't actually end up selling. He did come very close to selling to Microsoft, though. Here's a bit about it: https://www.revealingthestuffs.com/mark-zuckerbergs-synapse-digging-the-tech-history/ https://www.revealingthestuffs.com/mark-zuckerbergs-synapse-...
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
SirLJ 8y ago
You are spot on and we see the results of very poorly managed company...
- rdlecler1 8y ago
  I don’t think a lot of poorly managed companies even get to a $1b valuation. Easy to be an armchair quarterback. One could argue that it’s been one of the beat managed companies and like most companies it faces ups and downs.
  - docbrown 8y ago
    >I don’t think a lot of poorly managed companies even get to a $1b valuation. I think any product can become valuable depending on how you market it to your targeted users. FB is said to be somewhere you can go to be with friends and family; share memories, no matter where you are. If we’re going to ignore all of the ads and data mining going on behind the scenes, it’s easy to say that FB is doing a good for society. But it has its flaws. Just earlier on HN there was a link about FB possibly selling user data. We have the Cambridge Analytica mess from the election. Zuckerburg is smart when it comes to programming and tech, but running a company ethically is a different ballgame and that is the problem a lot of people have with his company. Nobody is saying he’s doing a bad job at building the product. He’s doing a bad job of managing the trust his users put into him when they use his service every single day.
    - askafriend 8y ago
      > I think any product can become valuable depending on how you market it to your targeted users. Alright, not to be rude but this is a dead giveaway that you've never built a business or product before and you don't know what you're talking about. I hate to call you out like this...I understand the sentiment you're trying to express, but any entrepreneur or product leader who looks at your comment will immediately know that it has no legs in reality. This is not how any of this works. Your follow-up is also a completely different argument than the one you initially presented.

askafriend 8y ago

Your comment is quite far off from reality. To address your first point: he started the company deliberately. He had sold a successful company before Facebook. He also turned down multi-billion dollar acquisition offers because he knew exactly what he was doing and what the opportunity was. Many of the funding rounds for FB were red hot and everyone was trying to get in. And to your second point: what he built is unprecedented. And because it is unprecedented, there are a lot of questions that we as a society need to answer collectively about the role a product like Facebook plays in our lives (kinda just like with every other new, transformational technology, including email). But to call his execution "In over his head" is laughable. I don't think other leaders would have fared any better and many could have fared much, much worse. Now, are there questions and valid criticisms about his execution today or his handling of the recent controversies? Of course! Does that mean he's a random guy with a side-project that accidentally blew up and suddenly he's in over his head? Absolutely not, your comment is more fantasy than reality.

starik36 8y ago
What business did he sell before Facebook?
- nostrademons 8y ago
  Probably referring to the Synapse Media Player, which had a million-dollar buyout offer from Microsoft while Zuckerburg was in high school. IIRC he didn't actually sell it though; it was still a going project under Zuckerburg's control when he created FB, and just kinda died out because FB held more potential.
  - askafriend 8y ago
    This is exactly it, I misremembered a bit of the history. I forgot that he didn't actually end up selling. He did come very close to selling to Microsoft, though. Here's a bit about it: https://www.revealingthestuffs.com/mark-zuckerbergs-synapse-digging-the-tech-history/ https://www.revealingthestuffs.com/mark-zuckerbergs-synapse-...

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

SirLJ 8y ago

You are spot on and we see the results of very poorly managed company...

rdlecler1 8y ago
I don’t think a lot of poorly managed companies even get to a $1b valuation. Easy to be an armchair quarterback. One could argue that it’s been one of the beat managed companies and like most companies it faces ups and downs.
- docbrown 8y ago
  >I don’t think a lot of poorly managed companies even get to a $1b valuation. I think any product can become valuable depending on how you market it to your targeted users. FB is said to be somewhere you can go to be with friends and family; share memories, no matter where you are. If we’re going to ignore all of the ads and data mining going on behind the scenes, it’s easy to say that FB is doing a good for society. But it has its flaws. Just earlier on HN there was a link about FB possibly selling user data. We have the Cambridge Analytica mess from the election. Zuckerburg is smart when it comes to programming and tech, but running a company ethically is a different ballgame and that is the problem a lot of people have with his company. Nobody is saying he’s doing a bad job at building the product. He’s doing a bad job of managing the trust his users put into him when they use his service every single day.
  - askafriend 8y ago
    > I think any product can become valuable depending on how you market it to your targeted users. Alright, not to be rude but this is a dead giveaway that you've never built a business or product before and you don't know what you're talking about. I hate to call you out like this...I understand the sentiment you're trying to express, but any entrepreneur or product leader who looks at your comment will immediately know that it has no legs in reality. This is not how any of this works. Your follow-up is also a completely different argument than the one you initially presented.