The 10 Hires that Made Facebook Facebook

Facebook is a giant. Whether we want to admit it or not, there is no way for us to deny it is a place we spend our time. In Silicon Valley, we all start out as a “little guy,” with hopes of going from 10 to 100 employees and eventually large enough to have an entire campus, hundreds of employees and global recognition. Facebook achieved a startup’s wildest dreams. Building the empire like Facebook is not an easy task. Each employee promises new ideas that will take the company to its next frontier. With each hire Facebook has grown, and each of their employees has found a way to embed Facebook into our lives and culture. Yes, Facebook started with a great idea, but that is not enough. You need the right people to grow and build your idea into a thriving business; people who spend each day working for a better tomorrow. Facebook’s success could not have been possible without a great team. These are the Top 10 Facebook Hires:

10. Anikka Fragodt manages Zuckerburg’s life, and that’s no exaggeration. Fragodt works behind the scenes as Zuckerburg’s executive assistant, which at a company as large as Facebook and a man as busy and in demand as him is no small task. Organization is key for Fragodt and she is solely responsible for making sure Zuckerburg does exactly what he needs to do to keep Zuckerburg running at the pace and quality Facebook demands. Zuckerburg may be the head of the company, but Fragodt is the neck. As far as I remember from my anatomy classes, the head doesn’t function without one.

9. Steve King directed Facebook’s media sales from April 2005 to July 2006. Though his time was short, his impact was huge. King was responsible for acquiring the first huge advertisers, such as Panasonic and Microsoft. By gaining attention from such large companies, King added huge values to Facebook’s market share and validated the model of generating ad revenue from gigantic companies.

8. Aaron Sittig was the first designer at Facebook and responsible for hiring the first product design team. Sittig is responsible for the concept of tagging friends in Facebook pictures. Photo albums were one of Facebook’s first standout features, Sittig capitalized on this and made albums far more engaging for Facebook users.

7. Sheryl Sandberg is the current COO at Facebook. Sandberg manages all business operations from public policy and sales, to human resources and marketing, including everything in between.  Sandberg has held many C-level positions at a variety of companies; with a track record of gold it is no wonder Facebook hired her to ensure the now global company will run like an enterprise. Many would place her higher on the list, but with all the amazing things other employees have made to build Facebook, 7 is as high as I could place the COO.

6. Scott Marlette was one of Facebook’s first employees and – like in most startup environments – he was expected to wear many hats. Marlette started as in engineer and later became a product manager. Marlette developed Facebook photos and photo albums. You know, that amazing feature we all spend hours clicking through to stalk friends and family? Marlette was also a key player in developing Groups, Events, and Inbox.

5. Andrew McCollum came to Facebook in February 2004 as an engineer and cofounder. McCollum designed Facebook’s first logo. This is another example of a team member that wore many hats, and wore them well. As an engineer McCollum was responsible for building functionality, but he was also responsible for designing an international symbol that is easily recognized everywhere today.

4. Taner Halicioglu, hired in October 2004, was the first Facebook employee outside of the founders. Halicioglu built the entire initial hardware infrastructure. This means he developed architecture that allowed Facebook’s website to grow and evolve as its audience did. Halicioglu delivered performance, Facebook users usually do not think about what makes the website work, but it does because of this great hire.

3. Dustin Moskovitz was Facebook’s first CTO, and Zuckerberg’s roommate. As the leader of technical staff, Moskovitz oversaw the building of major architecture on the site. Today we hear everyone talking about “going mobile,” and having mobile capabilities for their product. Moskovitz was way ahead of us all in developing Facebook’s mobile strategy and development before most companies saw the real value of a mobile application. Moskovtiz in a phrase, “ahead of the curve.”

2. Andrew Bosworth was among the first 15 engineers at Facebook and helped build the newsfeed. As Facebook’s engineering teams began to grow to massive sizes Bosworth took it upon himself to ensure Facebook would not lose its culture. Bosworth set up boot camps to emphasize Facebook’s,  “hacker way” and ensure each engineer would get to know each other. Not only is Bosworth a technical magician, but also he cares about the team.

1. Naomi Gleit, the 2nd longest tenured employee (Zuckerburg is first), was hired as Facebook’s “Product Manager of Growth” in 2005. It’s her job to make sure everyone with Internet access became a Facebook user. Gleit helped grow Facebook from 1 million users at the time of her hire to over 1 billion today. Gleit introduced Facebook to a global audience by implementing translation abilities, easier signup pages, and pushing Facebook beyond college students and their networks. Every day Gleit works on introducing Facebook to a new market, and I say she’s done a pretty good job.

It’s hard to imagine that Facebook was ever a startup, all we can think of is a Silicon Valley giant, operating the largest and most successful social network in the world.  However, there was a time, when Facebook was just getting started. In the early phases it’s important to hire talented people who can excel in more than one area because the reality is you will never be able to have all the people you want.  Facebook makes quality hires that take pride in their work and make lasting impressions on the way Facebook operates. As Facebook continues to grow so does the rate at which they hire, but I will tell you one thing for sure, they are not sacrificing talent and neither should you.

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