Making Facebook THE Social Network

This is our third post on startup lessons from David Fincher’s new film about the founding of Facebook, The Social Network. We’ve already seen that business ideas aren’t protected, and that startups, especially, need to be clear on partnership agreements, and whether partners are actually a good idea. Today, the important lesson is about actually shipping, getting to market, and seizing opportunities.

Doing, marketing, selling is what makes a successful business
While the Winklevoss twins and Divya Narendr focused on the idea of the business, Mark Zuckerberg actually coded and launched a product. When his friend and partner Eduardo Saverin dragged his feet on investment and expansion decisions, Zuckerberg cut him loose to move faster.

The success of Facebook wasn’t about the idea. Business ideas aren’t actually worth very much. “If you have a good idea, a thousand other people have the same idea. You’re in a race to take that idea and make it happen, make it real. You build the business, you don’t just have the idea.”

As one commenter wrote about the case back in 2007, “I have taken a look at ConnectU and their script…anybody could write such a script..what makes Facebook facebook, is not because of any code or script…it’s Faceboook’s strategy and [how they] positioned themselves.”

Zuckerberg himself credits Facebook’s success to three things:

* Boldness
* Speed
* Focus

Zuckerberg used his technical savvy to take an event that was already happening offline – college students socializing – and move it online. Boldness and speed were apparent even in the one-day success of an earlier experimental site, Facemash, which he created in a weekend while at Harvard. According to the Harvard Crimson, Zuckerberg intended to share the site only with a few friends, but it quickly spread across campus to get 22,000 votes. No doubt that early feedback (and the fact that more than half of all Harvard undergrads joined Facebook in its first month) helped encourage him to moved quickly to expand beyond his initial market (Harvard) into other colleges, and then to non-college students.

Of course, as reviewer Richard Corliss says, “Zuckerberg would make billions selling friends — and if need be, the film reckons, selling them out.”

Making it, getting it launched and to market, is especially true for startups now, in a down economy, as venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki explains.

“In today’s economy and tight credit markets, there is a much greater emphasis on getting to revenues fast and more emphasis on business models than before,” Kawasaki says. “You also meet companies that are further along. Whereas, a few years ago the accepted practice was you raised a bunch of money, then you went away for a year and built your software. You needed the money to hire people, buy tools and all that kind of stuff.”

Will you follow through, or foul up?

P.S. Speaking of Facebook – Have you joined our fanpage?

Similar Posts:

Share

Post comment