
A Walk in the Woods with Mark Zuckerberg - luigi
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/07/a-walk-in-the-woods-with-mark-zuckerberg/
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thwarted
_"He pointed out Apple’s headquarters, then Hewlett-Packard and a number of
other big tech companies, the individual explained. Then he pointed to
Facebook and said that it would eventually be bigger than all of the companies
he had just mentioned, and that if I joined the company, I could be a part of
it all."_

This sounds vaguely familiar.

 _Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth
him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him,
All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me._ \--
Matthew 4:8-9

(edit: it's a common theme, one of the oldest is in the Bible, and most are
most likely appropriated from there)

~~~
pilgrim689
Oh please.

~~~
thwarted
I seriously doubt it played/plays out as described, but it seems too strong a
similarity (it's a classic Temptation of Christ description, which m__ pointed
out below also makes an appearance in The Lion King) to not be the intent of
the author of the OP to be hinting at.

~~~
18pfsmt
A similar comment was left on the Business Insider[1] post earlier this
morning. It does seem quite hyperbolic an insinuation.

[1][http://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-walk-in-
the-w...](http://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-walk-in-the-
woods-2011-7)

------
m__
“Then he pointed to Facebook and said that it would eventually be bigger than
all of the companies he had just mentioned, and that if I joined the company,
I could be a part of it all.”

That's how Mufasa pitched Simba.

------
mikeleeorg
Judging from most of the comments here, I'm in the minority, but I applaud
Mark for taking such a personal approach to recruiting desired talent. Sure,
it can be seen as cheesy when you read about it - but I'm sure each person who
got this invite was somewhat impressed and/or flattered by the personal
attention.

I once wooed a great developer by taking photos of people from my team holding
a sign saying, "Hi $Persons_Name!" (where $Persons_Name was the actual
candidate's name, of course). Seeing it now, it sounds kinda cheesy and dumb,
but it worked. He took the job and rose quickly in the company.

This approach may not work for everyone, but it's still admirable that Mark is
taking time out of his hectic schedule to try attracting these candidates.

------
eggbrain
_"He pointed out Apple’s headquarters, then Hewlett-Packard and a number of
other big tech companies, the individual explained. Then he pointed to
Facebook and said that it would eventually be bigger than all of the companies
he had just mentioned, and that if I joined the company, I could be a part of
it all."_

I know he has to sweet talk employees to join his company, but I can't see
this ever happening. Right now Facebook has a valuation of about 80 billion,
and a userbase of about 750 million. Assuming he can get the userbase to 1
billion, and assuming he could pass Apple (~200 billion evaluation), that
would be $200 per user, when the service is free. I know they get money
through advertising and other ways, but that seems kind of high.

~~~
gojomo
Apple, founded 1976, first reached a $70 billion market cap after 30 years of
operation in 2006 (roughly eyeballing it from stock price).

Facebook, founded 2004, is now at a roughly $70 billion market cap from
private transactions after 7 years of operation.

It's not unthinkable.

~~~
m__
It doesn't really make sense to extrapolate future stock performance from past
stock performance.

The market says: If you consider all publicly available information, we think
that facebook will earn its shareholders the present day equivalent of 70bn
dollars. Apple will earn its shareholders 330bn.

These numbers reflect expected future performance and expected growth is
already priced in.

~~~
gojomo
Of course that's true as an outside investor working under the efficient
markets hypothesis, which is hard to beat. But it's not how a principal like
Zuckerberg, who can actually affect the valuation through strategy and
recruiting, should view or portray things.

And I'm not making an extrapolative prediction of Facebook's value, just
reminding people that the idea of Apple as a $300B-plus behemoth is itself
fairly recent, and required an at-the-time unforeseeable surge in value from
its Facebook-like $70B valuation just 5 years ago.

Thus rather than Apple providing an example of a height Facebook can't reach,
as the great-grandparent post seems to imply, Apple suggests the opposite,
that a $70B company can become a $330B company, in less time than pure faith
in the market valuations might suggest.

Finally, the $70B valuation is not a market prediction that the actual trading
value of Facebook will remain $70B in the future: merely that $70B is the best
consensus average from public information, weighted over all considered
futures. Very roughly, maybe there's a 4/5 chance Facebook falls back to $10B,
and a 1/5 chance it races forward to $310B. Voila, that risk-neutral average
value is $70B. So, a Facebook of Apple's size is 'thinkable', and there's
essentially no chance that $70B is its actual value after this all plays out.

~~~
m__
I didn't mean to imply that markets were efficient or that MZ can't have
information that suggests that fb will surpass Apple in market cap or
otherwise.

I really just meant that historic trends don't imply future trends.

Your (and maybe also the previous poster's) point that Apple is an example of
valuations changing rapidly is obviously valid.

------
masterponomo
I got one of those email invites, to work on my specialty (accessibility
features). It was a bit of a fiasco as my chair got stuck in some mud on the
trail. MZ kept walking and talking while my wheels spun and dug me ever deeper
into the slime. Thank God some other guys came along. I think it was a Honda
service manager courting a new mechanic, because they both had tools and the
older guy had a "Honda" patch on his shirt. Anyway, I lived, but I didn't get
the FB job.

~~~
CWIZO
Wait, he just left you there?!

~~~
masterponomo
In his defense, I had made a somewhat obnoxiously worded point about not
wanting special treatment because of my handicap. I was in no danger. Those
woods are rife with people making job offers and someone was bound to come
along sooner or later.

------
pak
Kind of a cute idea, although if I'm seeing this trail correctly, you wouldn't
be starting at the edge of the Facebook parking lot--you cross a hill, then
cut through an elementary school, walk a few blocks to Junipero Serra and
start up the trail there. Also, the trail itself is not very wooded--more like
grassy.

[http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Facebook+Offices,+South+Califo...](http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Facebook+Offices,+South+California+Avenue,+Palo+Alto,+CA&hl=en&ll=37.412215,-122.156639&spn=0.012868,0.023775&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=51.708931,97.382812&t=h&z=16)

~~~
pingswept
I lived in the neighborhood of Facebook's office for a few years. I suspect
the "wooded trail" is actually just walking up to the top of the small hill by
Peter Coutts Circle. It's actually a pretty nice view for how short a walk it
is. If it's not that, it's the trail to the dish, which is not wooded at all.

Either way, I don't see how you could possibly see Apple in Cupertino from
either place. Take a look at the map, and then look at this random video shot
from the dish trail: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aar3EH4y1JA>

The camera is pointed in the direction of Cupertino around 1:20 or so. There's
no way you can "point out" Apple's campus. You can wave in the right
direction, but you can do that from an office too.

~~~
baguasquirrel
Maybe it has something to do with the reporter being from NYC.

[full disclosure: I am from NYC]

------
ForrestN
This is so cheesy! I don't know if I could keep a straight face.

It's interesting how different the personalities of different companies are,
and how deeply those personalities penetrate the way they operate. And, just
like human personalities, you just like some companies and you don't like
others. I would be completely turned off by the Zuckerberg-worshipping
atmosphere being confirmed explicitly by the man himself, but clearly it must
work on a lot of people if they're doing it regularly.

~~~
almightygod
I tend to agree with your sentiments and have never thought of applying at
facebook. But if I ask myself honestly, it would be hard to turn down "an
offer that couldn't be refused" that came personally from Zuckerberg

------
ArchD
See how they treat their engineers. Some of these negative reviews have pretty
high ratings: [http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Facebook-Company-
Reviews-E4...](http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Facebook-Company-
Reviews-E40772_P2.htm)

Everything is fine and dandy until you see the actual realities and numbers.
I'm curious to know what they engineer turnover rate is.

~~~
hello_moto
I think this is expected if you were to work in a company like Facebook.

It's a startup. It's unstable. So things like this bound to happen. They need
to quickly change directions if required. People that don't align need to be
removed.

I'm quite sure those special hiree would potentially have their own team hence
becoming a tech-lead or some sort so they don't necessary work as a bottom-
liner.

~~~
jarek
Don't you think that calling a seven-year-old company with thousands of
employees a start-up dilutes the term a little bit?

------
darksaga
For all you unfamiliar with sales, this is what's referred to as, "the close".
I highly doubt Zuckerberg thought about the biblical overtones. It is, an easy
way to close a prospect, and a great way to convince somebody to join
Facebook.

It would be the same as a highly recruited athlete in high school. You take
the tour of the college campus, then they lead you to the stadium and say,
"Imagine Nick, 30,000 fans screaming your name every Saturday afternoon."

It's just a sales pitch, nothing more, nothing less.

------
orblivion
Skeptical employee walks into the woods with Mark Zuckerberg. 30 minutes
later, pale faced, sweating employee walks out of the woods and into
Zuckerberg's office, and hastily signs employment contract.

------
dpritchett
Slick. As an interviewee I do my best to stand up and walk around during an
interview; anything to get the brain and charisma going and the jitters
forgotten is good for developing a rapport.

------
peterquest
That was nice of him to give them an offer they couldn't refuse.

------
rglover
Although this may sound cheesy, anyone who got the chance to participate in
something like this would be geeked. What's more is that Zuckerberg has
created something that _could_ take on the major tech companies. The best
part, he's got 750 million people riding his coattails. He's conscious of the
phenomenon that he's created. You'd Simba the fuck out of your programmers too
if you were him.

------
ddw
Perhaps this was something that was left on the cutting room floor of "The
Social Network". Very Hollywood to me.

------
fady
what? that's it? this article was boring. why do peeps care about everything
Zuc does or says? I expected a little more juice then a few sentences someone
said..

<story> My boss took me on three walks on market st in SF before I was hired.
I was the first potential employee and I felt as though I was going to get
whacked or something...talking about passion, drive, loyalty, and how I can
make a big difference and the world is ours.

We make 3m+ /year and have 19 employees</story>

Im not sure why anyone would care about my story. Was my story interesting?
no...articles like this make me feel like the tech world is still in HS :|

~~~
Joakal
People are inherently curious about a young man who had so much success from
nothing.

------
seagaia
I think the negative reviews need to put into perspective that they just are
eliminating people who don't align with the main viewpoints of Facebook - I
for one would probably be one of them, the idea of making this giant social
networking tool doesn't bring me much joy.

I think those people should say more about what led them to Facebook in the
first place. If it isn't a love of "connecting" people, then it probably
wasn't that great of a reason (e.g., solely money or fame, though I could be
wrong)

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christkv
Did he track and kill something for food with his bare hands?

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hackermom
TL;DR: no, he did not kill a pig or a goat this time.

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wccrawford
If there's an NDA, how are people talking about it?

Seems fishy to me.

~~~
Brewer
They can talk as much as they want, as long as no body names them. You can't
sue someone for breaking an NDA if you don't know who it was that broke it :P

