How to think like Zuck

How many kid-coders would love to grow up to be Mark Zuckerberg?

Likely, you may also wish for his success - even if you don't know a lick of computer programming code.  The movie (Social Network) and myriad books (my fave is The Facebook Effect) chronicle the rise and rise and rise of Facebook as well as it's multi-billionaire founder.  Zuck.  He's an iconic image, eclipsing others before him including the cats at MySpace, Yahoo and even Google. 

So how did he do it?  How does he think?  What are his rules-of-the-startup road? Absent an auto-bio, there's little to gather from.  But in my case, it's Déjà vu'.  Between 1998 and 2004 I worked with two billionaire startup moguls pretty closely, and observed their personal operating systems.  First, I worked for Mark Cuban at broadcast.com.  Then, after he sold the company to Yahoo, I worked with Jerry Yang (and to a smaller extent, David Filo).  Between the two of them, the make-it-huge DNA is out there to deconstruct, or as in the case of Zuck, emulate.  

How To Make A Billion With An Idea: 

1 -- Solve A Problem, Then Create An Addiction:In the case of AudioNet (later, broadcast.com), Cuban and Todd Wagner, saw a problem: Indiana University basketball games were not broadcast nationwide, where alumni could listen.  So they solved that problem via audio streaming and soon, people got hooked on watching videos or listening to programs on their computers.  Yang and Filo saw a problem: The internet was difficult to navigate, making it hard to find information on golf and sumo wrestling (their fave sports).  So they created a guide to the web and people got hooked on searching.  This is what Zuck saw at Harvard: No facebook solution for students to use to hook up or network.  

2 -- Build Something That Scales: This is why most tech-billionaires can code, or at least have a firm grasp of technology.   Absent this intelligence, you'll build solutions that crash when they take off (like Friendster or PointCast) or flame out because their niche appeal is just a novelty (not a solution).  Zuck's obsession with keeping the system up at all times is likely the #1 reason for Facebook's continued success and growth.   

3 -- Thing BIG: Don't limit your solution to the problem at hand, devise a plan to take over the world.  Yang and Filo wanted to build the killer app that made the web mainstream.  Cuban wanted to shake up the media industry, make a billion and buy a jet.  Zuck, from day two, wanted to make the world more open.  Without a BHAG, you won't attract talent, money and media with enough mass to bust a grape. 

4 -- Keep The Biggest Slice For Yourself: Yang and Filo, somehow, held on to a huge amount of Yahoo (by investor terms), which mostly came from good negotiations and a positive cash flow situation (which by most accounts was in place by 1996).  Cuban held on to even more (some speculate around 20%) by rolling over his take from his first startup into Audionet, limiting investment rounds, arguing well about valuation and giving a micro-slice of equity to employees.  Zuck is much the same here, very good at holding on to his stake.  Over time we'll see if he has 20% on IPO day...

Note: Not all blockbuster CEO's or founder teams did it this way.  Dell and Google were much more generous, giving a higher % of the company to early stage employees and partners.  Google went further: Setting aside 10% of shares for a social-change-the-world play (Google.org).  That's a risky move, though, unless  you end up being super=massive like Google was, you'll just be a multi-millionaire.  Personally, I'd more likely do it this way if I was every crazy enough to try a tech-startup. But I digress, this post is about how to think like Zuck.