Rules of the Game

My journey from Facebook and Google, to entrepreneurship.

We’re in the thick of it! We’re hosting 15+ events in the next few weeks in NYC and Austin (for SXSW), including a series of mixers, breakfast events, dinners, and Equinox workout sessions for founders, investors, and operators.

If you’re going to SXSW, you might want to check out my secret party (March 10) and Lumos House activation (March 11-14) that I’ve been working on for the past few weeks.

Stay tuned for details and a few upcoming changes to this newsletter.

I had no idea what I was doing during my first six months at Facebook.

I had been hired into the role of “Business Planning & Operations Lead” but frankly, I had no clue what that meant in the context of a $100 billion/year ad-tech company.

Looking back, I believe I was hired for my go-getter attitude, ability to think operationally-minded, and communication ability (I was fairly persuasive).

It was a fairly significant jump, coming from my previous role as an analyst at Bell, a Canadian telecommunications company where I had spent a few years doing data analysis, reporting, and project management. At the end of my tenure at Bell, I was a high performer, receiving the rating of Exceeds Expectations (my boss’s way of saying “above average”).

In my first six months at Facebook, I worked around 55–60 hours a week. At the time, it seemed like a lot, and I was flabbergasted when I received a Meets All Expectations rating at the end of my onboarding period. I had expected more. But now I realize that I just didn’t know the rules of the game.

At Bell, there were three things I had to do well to play the game:

• Listen to instructions carefully and deliver high-quality work on time

• Build rapport and communicate effectively with my manager, peers, and stakeholders

• Consistently demonstrate that I was proactive, eager, and optimistic

That was it. To all new grads at the 0–3 years of experience mark reading this: do this well, and you will be rewarded.

However, when I started my first “tech” job at Facebook, the rules of the game had changed. I was not necessarily rewarded for playing by the initial rules, no matter how hard I worked.

Facebook’s scale, culture, and processes were completely different. Obvious in hindsight, but oblivious to me at the time.

Not only did I have to do the things listed above, but I also had to identify new opportunities, create scope, generate creative ideas, influence without authority, evangelize my work, write in long form, and prove the quantitative impact of my work. Facebook rewards entrepreneurial-minded individuals and proactivity.

During my second performance cycle, I received a rating of Greatly Exceeds Expectations—one of the highest ratings you can receive. It took six months, but I had once again, learned the rules of the game.

At Facebook, I learned how to influence, persuade, evangelize, my work, and lead others. It has been one of my most memorable experiences, and I’ll never forget the people I met there.

When I left Facebook to go to Google as a product lead (I’ll explain why I made this jump another time), I played by the same rules. While I wasn’t there for long before I left to pursue entrepreneurship, I was told that I was exceeding expectations in the first six months in the role. Google and Facebook had a similar enough culture that the same rules applied (both large-scale profitable public ad-tech companies).

Once you know the rules of the game, you can play it at a higher level and deliver more impact with much less effort.

Playing the Entrepreneurship Game

Two years ago, I started building out the foundation for an events and media business, part-time while working in corporate, and recently I was able to leave Google to pursue this full-time (and sponsor my own visa!)

I haven’t revealed much about what I’m working on, but the path is similar to that of a bootstrapped founder and creator-led business.

It’s my first time building a business in the US, and I anticipate it’ll take me a year or so to learn the new rules of the game, but I can already tell that it is wildly different from the first 5 years of my career.

Entrepreneurs will relate: Things can go from 0 to 100 at any moment, but also from 100 to 0. Volatility is the name of the game. As an immigrant entrepreneur, my ability to play the game and build a sustainable business will directly impact my ability to put food on the table and stay in this country. But I love the thrill of it!

If you find yourself in a position where you have to relearn the rules (e.g. new job, new company, new environment, etc.), ask yourself these 5 questions:

1. What is the definition of success in the new game? How can I quantify that?

2. What factors will impact my ability to be successful? What will cause me to fail?

3. What would a 10x goal look like? What would have to be true for me to reach the 10x goal?

4. What is the most impactful work I am doing? What is the least impactful?

5. What experiments can I consistently run to get feedback on whether I’m succeeding?

Best of luck,

Andrew

📌 Andrew’s Picks

Fascinating internet things I’ve come across.

• How to Become Insanely Well-Connected – 7 tips for making memorable connections from a software sales executive. I resonate with these ideas!

• How to get rich in tech, guaranteed – There are two proven ways (based on probabilities and expected values) to make a lot of $$$ in tech. 1) Join a profitable, growing enterprise (like Google), and ride it out. Or 2) Pick the right high-growth startup (and get 20 years of experience in 5 while you’re at it.) This article tells you how you can pickt eh right staartup.

• Career Moats 101 – I’m obsessed with the idea of Career Moats and building a defensible strategy for professional income. Timely, given the wave of layoffs that have occurred and expected layoffs to come. Reminder: your job security is tied to your ability to get your next job, not keep your current one.

🖼️ Behind the Scenes

Last week, I hosted the first Junto Founders dinner of the year for 16 incredible people.

We had a four-course meal in a gorgeous private dining room. Folks left the room with their bellies and hearts full. It felt like a success.

Now that I have the playbook locked down, I plan to host 2-4 of these every month and invite y’all to dine with other remarkable people in the NYC tech community.

If you’re a brand that wants to get in front of a vetted founder or investor audience,

OR

A proven founder who wants to meet other incredible folks over a delicious meal, please reply to this email!

See you at the table.