The Face Behind Facebook / Is Facebook your friend

Robert Metras · Subscribe · Works at The Silent Seller
And I’ll leave you with one of Zuck’s more memorable quotes from the talk, “The biggest risk is not taking any risk…In a world that changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.”.

Most valuable quote in the story.


Sherilynn Macale · Subscribe · Top Commenter · San Francisco, California · 651 subscribers
My personal favorite was: “I don’t pretend that I had any idea that I was doing. I always felt like we were so close to dying in the first years, and were afraid that Google was about to build our product and we were going to be screwed, and look how long it took for them to build our product,” he said laughing, referring to Google’s newly launched social product Google+.


Joseph Benjamin Zielinski · The Boss at Zinc Digital Business Solutions Ltd
I disagree with that quote Robert - A risk he has taken is partnering with Microsoft.. a horse that barely has 3 legs in the web race!

A partnership with Google would have been better for open web community and guaranteed of social dominance in the future..


Jason Zaremba
That's a modification of a Wayne Gretsky quote: "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take"


Robert Scoble · Subscribe · Top Commenter · Chief Learning Officer at Rackspace Managed Hosting · 47,289 subscribers
What's interesting is that two years ago I was sitting next to Mitch Kapor when Mark Zuckerberg said he couldn't have built Facebook without moving to Silicon Valley (which I believe is true). Mitch was visibly upset at that remark. So, maybe Mark is throwing Mitch a bone.

Or, maybe, Mark realizes that his company is hiring people around the world (Facebook now has offices in Seattle, Austin, and many other places) and that pushing Silicon Valley isn't so good for recruiting. After all, he now has to pitch people to work at Facebook by saying things like "you're the smartest engineer I've ever met and you're going to change the world here." If he's out in the press saying Silicon Valley is the only place he could build his business it would run counter to his recruiting aims worldwide.

By the way, Leena, I have many photos of yesterday's event at http://flickr.com/scobleizer and you're always welcome to use my images in Techcrunch for free.


Raveesh Bhalla · Subscribe · Top Commenter · Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology
I guess it goes back to him saying "if I were starting now". He's learnt a lot in the past few years, but the fact is that he probably would never have gotten the same experience in Boston. It's a great place to start you're first company, but after one huge success, investors will be interested no matter where you start you're next venture and you can also attract talent because of you're credibility.


John Oravec · Subscribe · Top Commenter
Raveesh Bhalla or maybe by "starting now" he meant, in the year 2011. The world is so connected digitally it barely matters where you are anymore.


Ashie Hirji · Subscribe
agreed but are people connecting ?


Alex Annese · Subscribe · Firefighter at Yammer
did you even proof read this?


Matt Knopp · %s of Infrastructure at Yammer
It's fascinating, I have a hard time believing that Boston has the right people to create a company like FB. Technical talent, sure, but while I was there I met very few people who thought about products in terms of the users. Those that did were happy using Windows (and Gnome/KDE) as examples of great UX/product. OSX was chided for not being pure BSD.

Granted its been a decade since I lived in or founded any companies in Boston. It could be totally different today. It's hard to imagine because the things necessary for success as I see it where not just absent but often ignored to consider some technical issue, or simply looked down upon.


Alex Buran · Top Commenter · Founder at Translation Cloud
Matt Knopp - where is Yammer located? In a Valley?


Donegal Pearce · American University
Matt Knopp; Boston....the land of arrogance & ignorance...I could elaborate, but no need


Tim Turner · Subscribe
You know, the content of this article really drew me in, but it's tough to fist fight your way through a bunch of 3rd grade grammar mistakes, no matter how interesting the topic. Find some authors that know how to proofread. Please.

Serge Bronstein · Subscribe · Top Commenter · C.E.O. at PeopleMix.net social network
of course zuck will say to take risks, because he's one of the BIGGEST successes ever, if you ask the thousands of people who sunk time, money and effort into something and failed, they would tell you NOT to take risks!

and by the way everyone who is successful - a large part of it is LUCK - being at the right time at the right place with the right thing.


David F. Carr · President at Carr Communications Inc.
Well, on that point: Luck Is Just the Spark for Business Giants - NYTimes.com http://nyti.ms/sJv0Wi from "Great by Choice," "Good to Great" sequel


Tavares Antonio Robinsongreen · Subscribe · CEO/CVO at Moofaces Productions Inc.
IF IT IS MEANT TO BE IT IS MEANT TO BE. WORK HARD AND THINGS WILL COME IN LINE. YOU MUST HONESTLY HAVE SOMETHING MOST PEOPLE DON'T THEY ARE DELUSIONAL AND MUST BE CURRENT AND CHANGING SOMETHING. MARK RAN INTO SEAN NOT LOOKING FOR HIM WHATS THE CHANCES LUCK? THAT DOESN'T EXIST SEEK AND YOU SHALL FIND ... BUT MAKE SURE YOU HAVE SOMETHING


Javier Arevalo · Subscribe
Didn't Picasso say "Inspiration always finds me working"? It all begins with you making things, and luck (and karma, synchronicity, and whatever other unquantifiable force) comes afterwards.

Maria Constantinescu · Subscribe · Columbia
Quick! Everyone move to Boston!


Michael Best
Or Kanata!


Mike Walsh · Subscribe · Works at Rockstar Group · 241 subscribers
If facebook wasn't in silicon valley, it wouldn't be facebook. They wouldn't have access to the amazing set of investors, for one, and I'm guessing that they benefit from talent and advisors that are not as prevalent elsewhere.


Dharmesh Shah · Subscribe · Blogger at OnStartups · 106 subscribers
Indeed, Facebook would likely not have been Facebook had it not moved to the valley.

Having said that, I have a sneaking suspicion that Mark Zuckerberg would have been successful regardless of where he was. It just may have taken longer.

In my experience, once you start getting meaningful traction, getting funding from top-tier valley investors is not impossible even if you're based elsewhere.


Mike Walsh · Subscribe · Works at Rockstar Group · 241 subscribers
Dharmesh Shah I don't disagree with that at all, however, you never know what the acceleration, partnerships, etc; would have looked like. He certainly would not have had the access to the same people (Sean Parker), etc. He wouldn't have been so close to Mark Pincus and Zynga, which drove mutual growth. Anyhow, it doesn't really matter because there's no way to know what the company would look like -- it just surprised me that he would have that view. ps -- I'm from Boston and realize the level of talent there. Hubspot is a great example of getting it done in Boston.


Gossy Ukanwoke · Founder and CEO at Students Circle Network
The Zuck continues to greatly influence me.. Picked lots of important points in that... Always take risks.. You can succeed from anywhere and more..


Stacey Simmons · CEO & Founder at Omnicademy
I miss editors. This article has so many errors in the writing, I felt like I was reading a journal entry, not journalism. The article is interesting, the subject matter welcome. But- don't you guys doing ANY copy editing?


Mike Saldivar · Hyde Park, Utah
And what's really sad, is the key quote which people are re-quoting is nearly unintelligible how it's written: "In a world that changing really quickly?"


Betty Mackenzie
Stacey.." But- don't you guys doing ANY copy editing?" You did not edit this statement. Bad english


Jay Zalowitz · Subscribe · Top Commenter · Seton Hall
I don't know if it was covered in here, but it should be remarked he said "Knowing what I know now" "if you are an inexperienced founder, sv may be good for you".


Sherilynn Macale · Subscribe · Top Commenter · San Francisco, California · 651 subscribers
Great piece, Leena.


Moshe Neuman · Brooklyn, New York
Facebook’s Zuckerberg: If I Were Starting A Company Now, I Would Have Stayed In Boston.
NOW yes , but back that he coudn't , and the same reason is on for other start ups on the bigger scale , its always like this if I would know than what I know now I would......
Good Luck Mark , you have money for one and only reason becuse god wants you to it doesn't matter what you do , and you even said you had no intention to make a company.


Joseph Ascencao · Attleboro High School
Mark Zuckerberg is an Atheist you idiot.


Shehryar Siddiqi · Subscribe · Top Commenter · Communications Consultant at Independent
Maybe he's just mad that he left a city that has produced many championship winning sports teams in recent memory. Don't worry Zuck, the San Jose Sharks will make you proud ;).


Jim Shaw · UT Dallas
Great advice about doing what you're passionate about and working hard at it. You only get one life and you spend 40 years working. You better enjoy what you do.


Jack Tai · CEO & Co-Founder at Notesolution.com
Zuck made a very good comment: “The biggest risk is not taking any risk…In a world that changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.”.


Jason Dorfman · Top Commenter · UCSB
"Now that I have connected everyone, I have created a platform on top of the Internet. Share! Share! Share! All apps must utilize my social graph and the information that it contains, Muhahaha."

Who else misses the old Zuck? The Zuck that just wanted to make something "cool":

http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/13/2005-zuckerberg-didnt-want-to-take-over-the-world/


Akoto Livingstone · Central University College, Ghana
you are a fool, go and make ur chat website and see who will click on dat page not even a two year old child. fuck u, ZUCK FOREVER!

Yoni Ende · Top Commenter · Delray Beach, Florida
He is definitely overly modest. Some great lessons. Nice to see tech start up potential spreading throughout the country. TechStars is now in multiple cities and other incubators are popping up all over.


Jon Finegold · Top Commenter · Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Great post - Zuck is more and more impressive each year and he's not even 30...look out world. And nice to see the Boston plug. Lots of amazing stuff happening here, just not as much buzz.


Jason Gan · Subscribe · Penang, Malaysia
Working on the final touchup on a proposal now, and this is absolutely a good distraction.


Mohit Agrawal · Subscribe · University of Florida
There is something magical about Silicon Valley. I wish I could move there. :|


Anthony Ryan Delorie
what is keeping you?

Mohit Agrawal · Subscribe · University of Florida
Anthony Ryan Delorie : My studies.

Robert Daidone · Walsh College
Magic? It's called talent. Lots and lots of talent. Wherever you go there you are. It helps to be around talented people but it doesn't rub off.


David Maynard · Curry College
Thanks Zuck for acknowledging that innovation doesn't just have to come from the Valley.

Shekar Chandrasekaran · Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Yeah Right! There are places for everything to get noticed and not being the right place may not guarantee success (forget success, survival!). For software, the two best places are: Silicon Valley and New York City! Period!
Just as people wanting to make entry into Hollywood, has to be either in LA or NYC! Of course, people can come up from other places, but chances are reduced.
In line with what Mark Z said, I fully agree taking risks are important, but what is more important is to identify the consequences and eliminate as much negative as possible and then weigh in the risks to see if it is worth it. Not blindly walking into the middle of a street!
Reply · 1 · Like · Follow Post · 15 saat önce

Tavares Antonio Robinsongreen · Subscribe · CEO/CVO at Moofaces Productions Inc.
TRUE TRUE
Reply · Like · 13 saat önce

Jim Scheinman · Subscribe · Los Altos Hills, California
Sure, there are a lot of problems in Silicon Valley these days, especially in regards to hiring great talent that remains loyal; however, simply put, there would be no facebook today if Mark Zuckerberg and the team didn't move to Silicon Valley in the early days. It was the Silicon Valley network, money, & experience that gave Zuck and facebook the chance to be what it is today.

Tavares Antonio Robinsongreen · Subscribe · CEO/CVO at Moofaces Productions Inc.
CORRECT

Prasad Thammineni · C.E.O. at OfficeDrop
If Facebook was still in Boston, it would become a "Social Network for the Enterprise".

Dave Rensberger · Software Engineer at Ambient, Inc.
Yeah, I think this kind of nails it. It seems to me that Boston VCs always shun consumer oriented ideas like FB because they are only interested in business plans that provide the short-term "guaranteed" revenue that enterprise or government customers can provide. Consumer markets require a longer term view and a greater appetite for risk and historically Valley companies have been better at this.

Harnav Harivasan · Subscribe
Really inspiring Zuck!