Meta CTO on working at Facebook in its early days: ‘Was tougher for Mark Zuckerberg’

The Meta CTO said that there was "tremendous camaraderie" and memories made among Facebook's early workers.

Meta's Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth shared how his early days at Facebook were while he was working with Mark Zuckerberg. In a discussion on Lenny's Podcast, Andrew Bosworth revealed how much sacrifice and dedication it took to build the company. There was "tremendous camaraderie" and memories made among Facebook's early workers and everyone ate most of their meals together and often lived within a mile of the office, he shared.

Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth reflected on early days of working at the company and what it meant for him.

He also said that most of the Facebook employees at the time worked for gruelling hours with 120-hour weeks as they survived on minimal sleep. He said that the romanticized success stories about working at a startup are all wrong as people hear much less about how much somebody sacrifices to be in that kind of job. He also shared how he had to give up being social or doing anything fun for a lot of his 20s but said that it was even tougher for Mark Zuckerberg.

"They don't tell you about that stuff in the movies," he said. There were also no experts to help him, he shared, explaining, “It was just like you and like your personal car and like whatever you wanted to do with your time.”

He also said that the startup path doesn't guarantee success for everyone as despite enthusiasm, the journey requires a lot of sacrifice.

He said, “There are other people who do the exact same thing, maybe they worked harder, maybe they were smarter, maybe they did better. And it didn't play out for them and it's a big sacrifice.”