In this special episode of "Acquired," hosts Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal interview Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Meta, live at Chase Center. The interview is a deep dive into Meta's past, present, and future, exploring its strategic decisions, technological advancements, and the challenges it has faced.
Zuckerberg begins by jokingly referencing Jensen Huang's past interview on "Acquired," hinting at the potential for future apologies for Meta's missteps. He reflects on the entrepreneurial journey, acknowledging its challenges and the importance of perseverance. He then unveils a custom-designed shirt with the sayings "Pothos mathos" (learning through suffering) and "Escalas," symbolizing the tough lessons learned and overcome in Meta's journey.
The conversation shifts to Meta's vision for the future of human connection. Zuckerberg emphasizes that Meta is a technology company focused on human connection, not just a social media platform. He highlights the potential of augmented reality (AR) glasses to create immersive social experiences, allowing people to feel present with each other regardless of physical location. This vision involves integrating AI assistants and holographic projections into everyday life. Zuckerberg admits the complexity of building AR glasses, which require advancements in display technology, miniaturization, and AI integration.
The hosts delve into Meta's history, recounting the numerous challenges the company has faced, including competition from MySpace, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok, and the impact of Apple's App Tracking Transparency. They praise Meta's resilience and ability to adapt. Zuckerberg attributes this success to Meta's strong technology foundation and a culture of learning and iteration. He describes the company's strategy as focusing on rapid learning and adaptation, prioritizing shipping products and gathering feedback over achieving immediate perfection.
The discussion explores whether product creation is an act of invention or discovery. Zuckerberg believes it is a combination of both, balancing personal values with customer feedback. He acknowledges that Meta has both invented seminal patterns, like the News Feed, and learned from competitors. The topic then pivots to open-source technology, with the hosts suggesting that Meta has been a major beneficiary. Zuckerberg agrees, noting that Meta built upon open-source foundations. Meta's contributions to open-source projects, such as Open Compute, have also driven industry standardization and cost savings.
The conversation takes a detour to the period before Meta's IPO, addressing the decision to build Facebook on mobile using HTML5. Zuckerberg admits that this decision was a mistake, as it lacked the native integration required for a good user experience. The company had to rewrite its apps from scratch, leading to a challenging period of revenue stagnation. He reflects on the importance of understanding one's place in the world and in history. He identifies his misdiagnosis of the political environment as a major regret, leading to a decade of political brand challenges. Zuckerberg recognizes that they should have been firmer about separating things they were actually responsible for vs. ones they didn't.
The discussion continues to Zuckerberg's super-voting shares. He explains that the structure was set up after Yahoo tried to acquire the company. The conversation ends with advice to founders to focus on building something they care about and be inspired by people who also want to build.