The Connection Newsletter 28 - IG and FB

The Connection Newsletter 28 - The Facebook/Instagram drama

October 08, 2018

Hello!

This is edition #28 of

The Connection

, the weekly email I send family, friends, and future friends (hello!) Glad you're here. In this little corner of the interest, we:

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First, I wrote an honest review of

, a program from Ramit Sethi.

Advanced Personal Finance

is a video course that serves as the “next steps” after you’ve completed everything in the I Will Teach book. Even though I work with a financial advisor, I still felt like I was handling too much of the minutia with my money. There had to be a better way.

This review breaks down what gets covered in the course, what I was able to implement, and whether it’d be a fit for you. You can read the review here.

...

Next, onto the articles. I’m taking a different approach this week (similar to when I wrote my man crush tribute to

).

Instead of covering a bunch of interesting reads, we’ll focus on one topic: the drama at Instagram and Facebook.Last week a whole bunch of articles came out detailing the drama over at Facebook as the Instagram co-founders left the company. Words were said. Dirty laundry was aired. Someone even wrote a heartfelt note about Facebook on… Facebook Notes (still a thing? Good to know). Here’s a timeline and breakdown of everything that happened: ...First, The New York Times broke the story. Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, the co-founders of Instagram, have resigned and plan to leave the company in the coming weeks, adding to the challenges facing Instagram’s parent company, Facebook.Their official statement: “We’re planning on taking some time off to explore our curiosity and creativity again. Building new things requires that we step back, understand what inspires us and match that with what the world needs; that’s what we plan to do.”Mark Zuckerberg praised the Instagram founders in his statement: “Kevin and Mike are extraordinary product leaders and Instagram reflects their combined creative talents. I’ve learned a lot working with them for the past six years and have really enjoyed it. I wish them all the best and I’m looking forward to seeing what they build next.”...Then Techcrunch claimed the reason was Instagram’s “weakened independence from The Book.” Tension had mounted this year between Instagram and Facebook’s leadership regarding Instagram’s autonomy.Facebook had agreed to let it run independently as part of the acquisition deal. But in May, former VP of Facebook News Feed, Adam Mosseri, was moved onto Instagram. The move was allegedly about getting Instagram to do more for Facebook, e.g. move content production on Instagram to flow towards Facebook. ...This is set against the backdrop of an executive mass exodus from Facebook (paywall). Several executives have cited personal reasons for leaving, but the timing leaves something to be desired. Among those executives are:  Rachel Whetstone, head of product comms  Dan Rose, head of business partnerships,  Gary Briggs, CMO   Elliot Schrage, Vice President of Communications and Public Policy Colin Stretch, Vice President and General Counsel Alex Stamos, Former Chief Security Officer...Meanwhile, Ben Thompson makes the argument that Zuckerberg was always the CEO of Instagram. He makes a compelling argument (paraphrased below):Instagram was a product, and its business model was venture capital funding. To be sure, this wouldn’t be the case forever, but on April 9, 2012, the road from popular product to viable company was a long and arduous one. Instagram would not only need to continue growing its user base, it would also have to scale its infrastructure, figure out a business model, build up tools to support that business model, while fighting off larger and more established companies. Or, Systrom and Instagram could offload all of those responsibilities to Facebook and continue being “extraordinary product leaders”. The implication is that, title notwithstanding, Systrom was never the CEO of Instagram; to be a CEO is to have a company that can stand on its own. He was indeed, in title and in practice. To be CEO — to have control — is, at least in the long run, not simply about building a great product. It is about finding and developing a business model that lets you determine your own destiny. Controlling one’s own destiny, though, takes more than product or popularity. It takes money, which is to say it takes building a company, working business model and all. T Letting Facebook build the business may have made Systrom and Krieger rich and freed them to focus on product, but it made Zuckerberg the true CEO, and always, inevitably, CEOs call the shots....Shortly afterward, Forbes publishes their interview with Brian Acton, co-founder of WhatsApp. More than four years ago, Acton and his co-founder, Jan Koum, sold WhatsApp, which had relatively insignificant revenue, to Facebook for $22 billion, one of the most stunning acquisitions of the century.Ten months ago he left Facebook, Acton left the company, saying he wanted to focus on a nonprofit. Then in March, as details of the Cambridge Analytica scandal oozed out, he sent a Tweet that quickly went viral and shocked his former employers, who had made him a billionaire many times over: “It is time. #deletefacebook.” Acton told Forbes: “At the end of the day, I sold my company. I sold my users’ privacy to a larger benefit. I made a choice and a compromise. And I live with that every day.”...David Marcus defends Facebook via Facebook Note (seriously, it’s still a thing)? David Marcus an executive at Facebook, working on blockchain projects. Paraphrased below:“First — there are few companies out there that empower and retain founders and their teams for as long as Facebook does. Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger thrived at Facebook for six years, Jan Koum and Brian Acton over four and three years, respectively. “It became pretty clear that while advocating for business messaging, and being given the opportunity to build and deliver on that promise, Brian actively slow-played the execution, and never truly went for it. In my view, if you’re passionate about a certain path — in this case, letting businesses message people and charging for it — and if you have internal questions about it, then work hard to prove that your approach has legs and demonstrate the value. Don’t be passive-aggressive about it. “There’s no other large company I’d work at, and no other leader I’d work for. I want to work on hard problems that positively impact the lives of billions of people around the world. And Facebook is truly the only company that’s singularly about people.” ...Lastly, The Information predicted Adam Mosseri would be tapped to lead Instagram (paywall). Turns out they were right. Mr. Mosseri was only recently put in charge of product at Instagram as part of a larger reorganization at Facebook. Part of the inner circle of Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, he was charged with overseeing Instagram’s product, growth and analytics.

Thanks for reading!

Dig this format? Prefer a mix of different articles? Let me know what you think (just reply to this email). Thank you! 

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