Facebook start-up crew moves on

Facebook, the most successful start-up of the last decade, is only six years old, and an initial public offering is still a way off.

Facebook, the most successful start-up of the last decade, is only six years old, and an initial public offering is still a way off.

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But a number of Facebook’s early employees are giving up their stable jobs, free food and laundry service to build their own businesses. Many of them are leaving as wealthy, either on paper or after cashing in their ownership stakes to do what they say they like best: start firms.

Dustin Moskovitz, 26, who co-founded Facebook with his Harvard roommate Mark Zuckerberg, left his job on Facebook’s technical staff to create Asana, which makes software that helps workers collaborate.

Another Facebook co-founder, Chris Hughes, also 26, has started Jumo, a social network for “people who want to change the world.”

Dave Morin, formerly the senior platform manager, is building Path, a still-secretive venture, while Adam D’Angelo, who was Facebook’s chief technology officer, and Charlie Cheever, another senior manager, set off in 2008 and 2009 respectively to start Quora, a question-and-answer site. More than half a dozen start-ups can trace their origins to Facebook alumni.

The departures follow a familiar pattern in Yahoo, eBay and Google.

Former Facebookers describe the company as a fabulous training ground. Zuckerberg hammered home the lesson of focusing on the long term by declining to accept ads on the site during its infancy.

The New York Times