Zuckerberg inspired by Jobs

I'm CEO, Bitch.

This phrase was really written on Mark Zuckerberg's business cards at a time when Facebook was still a startup - this is known from Ben Mezrich’s novel “ Billionaires Involuntarily, ” released in 2009. But she acquired the legendary status after the release of the film (the script of which was written based on this novel), the name of which has already surfaced in your memory. Justin Timberlake, who plays Sean Parker, inspired these words the obstinate Jesse Eisenberg, who played the role of founder of the social network, at the end of a high-profile monologue.

“This time you will give them a business card that says:“ I am the CEO, bitch! ”Is what I wish for you,” said Sean. At the very end of the film, Mark opens a box with business cards on which this odious phrase is already written.

Of course, all this is Hollywood fiction. In fact, nothing like this happened. But the phrase, and business cards, were more than real.

Last year, David Kirpatrick in their book " The Facebook Effect " confirmed their existence. Excerpt from the book: “As soon as the guys from Facebook began to meet more with real professionals from business, their exuberant and unruly authority spread more and more widely in the Valley. “The Lord of the Flies is over there,” one of the managers said to the senior recruiter, pointing to Zuckerberg, who had to be careful about what kind of business cards he took with him for meetings. He had two sets. One had a simple inscription: “CEO”. On the other: “I'm CEO ... bitch!" ”.

One of the company's first employees, Andrew Bosworth (“Boz”), continued this thought a bit later by answering a question in Quora . Let him try to get away from the fact of the existence of such business cards: “I think this was conceived first of all as a joke on friends, and speaks of how uncertain Mark himself was that one day he would become an important person in the entire industry.”

But more recently, Bryan Veloso, a Facebook designer from 2005 to 2006, gave a detailed answer.to the same question in Quora. In fact, he is the primary source, since the design of the business card was the creation of his hands. According to Veloso, the idea of ​​the phrase “I'm a CEO, Bitch” came to his mind for a reason - Zuckerberg made full use of this phrase. And, according to his words, he did this in order to look more aggressive, simulating the behavior of one person: Steve Jobs.

Here is the translation of the key part: “As for Mark, it’s no secret to anyone that at one time he was largely guided by Steve Jobs. Aaron Sittig and I were the only designers of the company at the end of 2005, all our meetings with Mark were held in this classic aggressive style of Jobs. At one of these meetings, I remember how he used this phrase more than once. ”

Veloso also notes that these business cards were largely a “fluke,” because he had good relations with Zuckerberg himself. It is also said that by the end of his term on Facebook, they stopped using them: “From the point of view of the designer, these retired business cards best illustrate the culture within the company at that time. Their replacement symbolizes the changes that the young company had to go through in order to be where it is today. ”

So this inscription on the business cards of Mark Zuckerberg did not appear at all after a party in a nightclub, with Victoria Secret models. But they really were. And for this you can thank Steve Jobs.



via TechCrunch