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Zuckerberg Fired His Executive Team Twice. The Second Time Created Facebook's Secret Weapon.

By Mark Zuckerberg · Leadership · 2 min read

Zuckerberg's first question to Horowitz: if I fire my executive team for the second time, would the board be nervous? Horowitz: that's not even the question. You're going to die with them.

Key Points

His execs were trying to force him to sell to Yahoo — leaking to press, calling for him to be fired
Traffic flatlined because they doubled engineering from 400 to 800 and nobody trained the new hires
Zuckerberg created a 2-month boot camp for every engineer and PM — he's a phenomenal student of management

When you're 10 people, there's no knowledge in the company. At 800, you have to teach people — they don't know who to ask.

The Coup

Horowitz: My first conversation with Zuck was in 2007. Facebook traffic had flattened. His executive staff was trying to run a coup to force him to sell to Yahoo. They were leaking to the press. Valley blogs were calling for Zuck to be fired.

His first question to me: if I fire my executive team for the second time, would the board be nervous? I said — that's not even the question, Mark. You can't succeed with them. You're going to die with them.

His execs were running a coup to sell to Yahoo. Horowitz: you're going to die with them.

Why Traffic Flatlined

Horowitz: I asked — why has traffic been flat? He said — we doubled engineering from 400 to 800. The product had a MySQL layer, an API, and applications built on the API. But a lot of new engineers wrote straight to MySQL and horked up the whole thing. It takes 10 seconds to log in.

I said — well, how do you train these guys? He said — 'train these guys?' I'll never forget that.

How do you train these guys? He said — train these guys? I'll never forget that.

The Boot Camp

Horowitz: When you're 10 people, there's no knowledge in the company. Everybody jumps in and starts working. But at 800 people, you have a lot of knowledge about how the product works, how you check in code. You have to teach people that. They don't know who to ask.

To show you what a great CEO he ended up being — he created this two-month boot camp. Every engineer, every product manager who entered Facebook had to go through it. Learn everything. He's a phenomenal student of management.

He created a two-month boot camp. Every engineer, every PM. He's a phenomenal student of management.

They Figure Out the People Part

Horowitz: A lot of these guys can figure out the people part pretty fast. The ones who truly don't understand people don't actually turn out to be good CEOs — they don't get to that level.

You can make fun of Larry Page or Elon or Zuckerberg — but they are actually very smart about people. All three of them.

You can make fun of Larry, Elon, or Zuck. But they're actually very smart about people. All three of them.