He's at it again! Say what you want about Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, but the guy sure knows how to recruit.
Today, David Marcus, President at Paypal, announced he is jumping ship to the behemoth social network, where will head up Facebook's popular Messenger service.
In a heartfelt LinkedIn blog post, Marcus explains why he's making the move, and why he doesn't feel like he's abandond the company he helped build. Essentially, his current role is management, whereas his background and true passion lie in product development.
Now is the time, because I feel that PayPal has never been in a better position to capitalize on its unique place in the market. Now is the time, because the product pipeline is strong, and these new experiences are scaling out. Now is the time, because PayPal’s reputation with developers is getting better by the day, because Braintree’s acquisition will truly enable PayPal to win in that space. Now is the time, because the leadership team is strong, and talent is flowing into the company again. In summary, now is time because PayPal is on track to achieve the greatness it deserves in the years to come.
In short, Marcus believes that he believes Paypal is positioned for great success, with or without him, and wants to get back to what he does best, building impactful products. He'll have to opportunity to do just that at Facebook, as the Messenger product boasts 200 million MAUs and sends 12 billion messages daily. This move proves Facebook is serious about monetizing the service, and certainly has the ambition to emerge as the biggest player in instant messaging, as their acquisition of WhatsApp will suggest. Speculation surrounding Facebook's move into payments will also be abundant, given Marcus' background. One of the biggest hurdles for a payment company such as Square or Venmo is to convince people to part with sensitive information, and make it worthwhile by convincing enough users their contacts have already done so. Facebook is already sitting on a mountain of sensitive data. Why should it be difficult to make the mountain just a bit higher?
Stories of Zuckerberg's recruitment prowess are abundant. If the astronomical growth of his company and the sheer breadth of the campus where they now reside don't convince you, there are a handful of anecdotes that ought to. Reportedly, Zuckerberg takes high profile candidates on lengthy hikes around Facebook's HQ, to a high area where other goliaths such as Google, Oracle, and Palantir are visible. This Gizmodo piece explains a primary source account:
"He pointed to Facebook and said that it would eventually be bigger than all of the companies he had just mentioned, and that if I joined the company, I could be a part of it all."
Another example of Zuck's seriousness recruiting is a quote often shared by Entelo's very own Jon Bischke. Jon claims Zuckerberg once mentioned that on the day before Facebook's IPO, he spent over 6 hours in and out of interviews with top talent. The eve of the most important day of that young man's life, and he spend a huge chunk of it selecting the people he felt might push his company ever onward. If he had the time to recruit, so does everyone else!
To close his post, Marcus explained a bit about how Zuckerberg got him on board:
Mark shared a compelling vision about Mobile Messaging. At first, I didn’t know whether another big company gig was a good thing for me, but Mark’s enthusiasm, and the unparalleled reach and consumer engagement of the Facebook platform ultimately won me over. So… yes. I’m excited to go to Facebook to lead Messaging Products. And I’m looking forward to getting my hands dirty again attempting to build something new and meaningful at scale.
What do you make of Marcus' move to Facebook? Leave a comment or tweet @EnteloRob!
