Early Facebook Investor On Meeting Mark Zuckerberg

Business Insider speaks with Roger McNamee, an early Facebook investor and author of the new book "Zucked." McNamee first met Mark Zuckerberg in 2006 and quickly became a mentor to the tech CEO. McNamee explains how Zuckerberg has changed since their first awkward meeting.
Following is a transcript of the video.
Kif: I wanna get to Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg because they're immensely powerful people. How did you meet Mark Zuckerberg?
Roger: So 2006, I got an email from a guy named Chris Kelly. He was the Chief Privacy Officer at Facebook. He says, "My boss has a huge business issue, and he doesn't know how to solve it, and he needs to talk to somebody who's been around a long time but has no conflicts. Would you take a meeting?"
Now, Facebook was 2 years old. Mark was 22. I was 50. And they had $9 million in sales the year before, and they got it basically from, you know, pizza ads. They didn't even have News Feed yet. They were still just college campuses and high school students. But it was already obvious that he'd broken the code on social.
I take the meeting. He comes in my office. I go, "Look, you don't know me, I don't know you, I need to tell you something." I said, "If it hasn't already happened, either Microsoft or Yahoo is gonna offer a billion for the company." And I gave him a whole bunch of explanations about what's gonna happen, like your management team, your parents, the board directors, everybody's gonna tell you take the money.
It turns out the reason he was coming to see me was Yahoo had just offered a billion dollars for Facebook. I basically hypothesized precisely what was going on.
Kif: But he hit you with silence, right? This is a 23-year-old, 22-year-old. He's CEO, the hottest thing in the Valley. What did the silence feel like? What were you thinking in that moment?
Roger: So... I described this in some detail in the book because it was a meeting unlike any I've ever been in, and I don't know how many people have ever had this experience of being one-on-one in a conference room that's set up like a living room. So we're in sort of comfy chairs, but we're no further apart than you and I are. And I described this thing to Mark, and he hasn't said anything yet. I mean, he's introduced himself, and that's it. There then ensues a silence that lasted almost five minutes.
I challenge you to be one-on-one with somebody and have them pantomiming thinker poses for five minutes and you not be on the verge of screaming. I mean, at about the three-minute mark, my fingernails were implanted in the cushions of the side of the couch. And at the four-minute mark, I'm literally thinking, "I'm gonna scream if he doesn't say something."
And when he finally relaxes and says something, I mean, I have no idea what's just been happening. I've never been in a meeting where anybody ever did that before, but it's also in some ways really amazingly cool because I've said something, and he's thinking so hard about it and trying to decide, "Do I trust this guy I've never met before?"
So when he relaxes and starts talking to me, he's paying me a huge compliment. And that part's really obvious. It was obvious that this was... His first reflex was not to blurt out what was going on, and I'm looking that as, "Wow, in an entrepreneur who's only 22, that's a really good sign." That level of caution, that level of listening, that level of thinking, I mean, I was already impressed before he came in, but after that, I'm going, "Wow, he is really one in a billion.
"So I ask him, "Do you wanna sell it?" And he said, "No, I don't."
Kif: Yeah, how have Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg changed since then?
Roger: I wonder because I don't get to talk to them anymore. My last interaction with either one of them was October of 2016, and the last interaction with anybody at Facebook was February 2017, and they have very consciously not communicated with me since. So I can't be certain.
All I can tell is from what I see. The Mark that I knew was really idealistic. He had this vision of connecting everyone in the world. The same way Google had a vision of collecting all the world's information. He was gonna connect everybody, and he was so convinced of the merit of that idea that I think he truly believed that any means necessary to get there was appropriate.
------------------------------------------------------
#Facebook #MarkZuckerberg #BusinessInsider
Business Insider tells you all you need to know about business, finance, tech, retail, and more.
Subscribe to our channel and visit us at: read.bi/7XqUHI
BI on Facebook: read.bi/2xOcEcj
BI on Instagram: read.bi/2Q2D29T
BI on Twitter: read.bi/2xCnzGF
--------------------------------------------------
Early Facebook Investor On Meeting Mark Zuckerberg

[@evaristegalois6282]

0:18 _Author of *Zucced_ Fixed the typo for you

[@m.s.1753]

Imagine if Mark Zuckerberg had taken US$1 billion from Yahoo for Facebook.

[@G13RS]

Mthwakazian Mthwakazian we would all be better off!!!

[@m.s.1753]

G13RS Facebook subscribers would be better off for sure and maybe Hillary Clinton would be president.

[@ojogbaneamedu2501]

MS MS lmao you all get to choose to use his website.

[@MrMACHINE]

Very interesting👍

[@i_ikarus]

This narrative about data selling really has some cinematic promise. David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin should work on "The Social Network 2".

[@rul4n]

I would die if that happens

[@i_ikarus]

Same, man.

[@achillesarturo8816]

i guess im randomly asking but does anybody know of a trick to get back into an Instagram account..? I was stupid forgot the login password. I appreciate any tricks you can offer me.

[@JudgeDredd_]

“To be or not to be zucc’d.” - famous quote

[@yalondapreyer389]

I love to hear a excellent story

[@cholententertainment6516]

Wow interesting

[@dac997]

first guy who ever get Zucc

[@PlayfulMedia]

Yeah, I deactivated my facebook a LONG time ago.

[@cholententertainment6516]

If You would havehave sold Facebook To Yahoo Yahoo wouldn't have gone

[@ironmantooltime]

Gee i wonder why FB don't talk to him anymore 😂

[@ranjeetjha1945]

Mark is one of the most smartest guy in the valley

[@icemaker7134]

RANJEET JHA No..😂 He is 1 of the luckiest..

[@oquendo0021]

Audio is low for me phone is all they way up

[@markjordan7800]

Roger is literately whispering for some reason

[@BobMcCoy]

*_He got the Zucc early on_*

[@daswasesheutegibt]

Audio to low, i can't hear shit on maximum ...

[@r.carroll6899]

I would like to meet for coffee conversation or a bite to eat ? Thanksanks Mark have a great weekend ?

[@georgegeorge8038]

Hey y'all Mark Zuckerberg fans! :) I've gotta quick pop quiz for all of ya. Which of these seven guys is the one that has been sucking a lot of attention these days and alla these many years. Is it: A. Alan Mathison Turing B. Narinder Singh Kapany C. Jawed Karim D. Stephen Gary Wozniak E. Sergey Mikhaylovich Brin F. Lawrence Edward Page G. Mark Zuckerberg I've made my own survey and asked a lot of people around me if they know all of these seven people mentioned above. The result? They only know who Mark Zuckerberg is and they cannot identify the rest of the six people mentioned above thanks to the media-hype, out-of place publictiy that Zuckerberg and the rest of his crew have all been in to. That guy has spent exorbitant amounts of money just to bloat up the vanity of his ego, and that's the bottom line, pointe blank and simple. Now it's 2019 and the American government just grilled Mark Zuckerberg's ass lately and then again I wanna see some more of these histrionic attempts of Mark Zuckerberg to over-glorify his image to the public. He's probably not gonna stop doing it pervasively all over and over again, and he's really never gonna stop even if he'll get a nose-bleed for doing it. If you really wanna know how insane It'll become, just imagine him being interviewed with a lotta blood outta his nose. Now that's what I call nose-bleed publicity. By the way people, Mark Zuckerberg was not and is not the inventor of the internet social media. All of these media-hype phenomena that has been circulating all across the globe about Mark Zuckerbeg is all dumb and flat out straight to the point histrionic. Mark is really just wasting a lot of his money just for the sake of over-glorifying his own image to the public. It's histrionic and it's insane. The world would still become a better place without Facebook, I promise you. I've already deleted my Facebook account since I've heard about a lot of these inequitable business practices that Facebook has incurred towards it's own users . If you do not believe me, try to open your eyes and look around you. You can go to Google and KZbin and you can search for all of the kinds of monetary inequities that Facebook has already established. Facebook really sucks. If Facebook as a company will collapse, it's employees will have to look for other jobs but these employees shouldn't worry about it that much coz another two or three or more companies might outgrow and replace Facebook. Cut one and ten will take its place. The world would still become a better place without Facebook, I promise you. So if you're a Facebook employee and if you worry that you might not get another job when you get out of that Facebook company, just remember this: "Cut one and ten will take its place."

[@Mr_Unfazed0]

Left facebook 3 months ago...

[@AnhTuPhucDerrickHoangCanada]

Investors should trade fb for a small nation.

[@XOPOIIIO]

Dislike for sound.

[@indusvalleycivilization5597]

Zuck Zuck Zuckerberg.

[@muhammadshoukat829]

Hi

[@zairazaan9850]

the video image is too poor, you need to fix it more

[@juls7582]

Started out as idealistic. Then he became a billionaire...turned into a greedy, soulless, monster.

[@shyamkarthik.k]

aka LIZARD (Just a meme, no offence)

[@slouischarlesYT]

It's not his fault. If you look into the abyss long enough...I forgot the rest.

[@ryanjensen5897]

When money is no longer a goal. As in, when you have so much of it loses its value to you personally. The next thing is to go after power.

[@slouischarlesYT]

@@ryanjensen5897 Yep. You quickly adapt to what you have but it's just about being competitive. When you want to be the best, you do everything you can to do so, without explicit malicious intent.

[@taylorj6177]

@@ryanjensen5897 You all are so small-minded. Just look at what this man has given our world. He's a brilliant visionary, a one-of-a kind person, and I have the feeling we ain't seen nuthin' yet.

[@Zarghami]

We all make mistakes right lol

[@TheDude-yw4kn]

FB is stupid.

[@KnightSlasher]

Succ

[@raboija]

*ZUCC*

[@Davey97]

H

[@GeebleTheGarble]

69th comment

[@rileylawlor1034]

Hahahaha

[@muhammadshoukat829]

Reply me please

[@audieleigha7890]

Shoukat Khan relpy

[@mangojuice6858]

Replyy

[@thewwb3970]

Reply

[@pppinto97]

Grandpa is reading too much into the silence of a person with zero social skills. Its unprofessional to keep someone waiting that long on 1 to 1 conversation.

[@brianSSStone]

and who are you in this world? are your social skills making you billions on networks?

[@pppinto97]

Brian Simiyu No. I'm not a theif. I didn't invent the ' the instant gratification attention hungry economy ' , I didn't create suicides or killings, I didn't sell personal data to companies without consent, I'm not a glorified their and not a troll either etcc.

[@urosuros2072]

Elon Musk does the same thing he just shuts up mid conversation and thinks for few minutes

[@cholententertainment6516]

Go trump #trump2020