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MZ

Mark Zuckerberg

10/25/13

@ Y Combinator

The first server for Facebook cost $85, and we operated on a philosophy of not spending money we didn't have, which constrained our growth but allowed us to focus on product quality.

Video

Mark Zuckerberg at Startup School 2012

@ Y Combinator

Mark Zuckerberg at Startup School 2012

10/25/13

Related Takeaways

Michelle Zatlyn

10/15/14

@ Y Combinator

In the beginning, we had no money for servers, so we reached out to our community for donations, which led to us assembling our first servers from donated parts.

Nirav Patel

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In the early years at Facebook, we should have focused on iteration speed rather than building a large team and a polished product.

Mark Zuckerberg

10/25/13

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We chose to launch Facebook at schools with existing social networks to ensure our product was superior, which would justify the time and effort invested in its development.

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07/01/23

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Facebook's decision to not charge users was strategic, allowing them to build a successful ad business based on scale.

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09/18/18

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After facing a 30% tax from Facebook, we realized we needed to expand beyond the platform to sustain our business.

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In the early days of Facebook, they scaled by creating separate database instances for each school, allowing them to manage growth without overwhelming a single database.

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11/30/21

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Facebook was always profitable from its early days, which allowed Mark Zuckerberg to maintain significant ownership and control over the company.

Mark Zuckerberg

10/25/13

@ Y Combinator

Facebook's growth was initially slow, taking a year to reach a million users, but this time allowed us to refine the product and ensure it met user needs effectively.

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We had to instruct our team that any new game should not launch on Facebook, as we needed to find revenue sources elsewhere.